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PRINCETON,  N.  J. 

The  Stephen  Collins  Donation. 

No.  (Me,  . _• . 

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JOHAN  VAN  OLDEN-BARNEVELD. 


“Nil  scire  tutissima  fides.” 


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HISTORY 


OF  THE 


UNITED  NETHERLANDS: 


FROM  THE  DEATH  OF  WILLIAM  THE  SILENT  TO  THE 
TWELVE  YEARS’  TRUCE-1609. 


By  JOHN  LOTHROP  MOTLEY,  D.C.L., 

CORRESPONDING  MEMBER  OF  THE  INSTITUTE  OF  FRANCE  ; 

AUTHOR  OF  ‘  THE  RISE  OF  THE  DUTCH  REPUBLIC. 


IN  FOUR  VOLUMES— Vol.  III. 
i 590-1600. 

WITH  PORTRAITS. 


* 


NEW  YORK: 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS, 

327  TO  335  PEARL  STREET. 

1868. 

%  *  * 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  one  thousand  eight 

hundred  and  sixty-seven,  by 

John  Lothrop  Motley, 

in  the  Clerk’s  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


ADVERTISEMENT 

TO  THE 

TWO  CONCLUDING  VOLUMES. 

Qi 


It  will  be  seen  that  a  change  has  been  made  in  the  epoch  at 
which  it  was  originally  meant  to  close  this  work.  Instead 
of  going  on  with  the  exclusive  history  of  the  Netherlands 
until  the  synod  of  Dort,  the  author  has  thought  it  more 
strictly  in  accordance  with  his  general  plan,  as  well  as  more 
convenient  for  the  reader,  to  pause  with  the  narrative  at  the 
point  of  time  when  the  Republic  was  formally  admitted  into 
the  family  of  nations  by  the  treaty  of  twelve  years  Truce, 
and  when  its  independence  was  virtually  admitted  by 
Spain. 

The  history  of  the  Thirty  Years’  War,  with  which  the 
renewed  conflict  between  the  Dutch  Commonwealth  and 
the  Spanish  Monarchy  was  blended,  until  the  termination  of 
the  great  European  struggle  by  the  peace  of  Westphalia, 
involves  all  the  most  important  episodes  in  the  progress  of 
the  Netherlands  until  the  year  1648. 

Upon  this  history,  which  is  'the  natural  complement  to 
his  two  works — “  The  Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic”  and 
“  The  History  of  the  United  Netherlands,” — the  author  is 
now  engaged,  and  he  hopes  at  a  future  day  to  ask  for  it 
the  indulgence  which  has  been  gejierously  accorded  to  its 
predecessors. 


London,  August ,  1867. 


V 


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# 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  III. 


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m 

CHAPTER  XXL 

Effect  of  the  Assassination  of  Henry  III.  —  Concentration  of  forces  for  the  in¬ 
vasion  of  France  —  The  Netherlands  determine  on  striking  a  blow  for 
freedom  —  Organization  of  a  Dutch  army  —  Stratagem  to  surprise  the  castle 
of  Breda  —  Intrepidity  and  success  of  the  enterprise .  Page  1 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

Struggle  of  the  United  Provinces  against  Philip  of  Spain  —  Progress  of  the 
Republic  —  Influence  of  Geographical  position  on  the  fate  of  the  Nether¬ 
lands —  Contrast  offered  by  America  —  Miserable  state  of  the  so-called 
“obedient”  provinces — Prosperity  of  the  Commonwealth  —  Its  internal 
government — Tendency  to  provincialism  —  Quibbles  of  the  English  Mem¬ 
bers  of  the  Council,  Wilkes  and  Bodley — Exclusion  of  Olden-Barneveld 
from  the  State-Council  —  Proposals  of  Philip  for  mediation  with  the 
United  Provinces — The  Provinces  resolutely  decline  all  proffers  of  inter¬ 
vention . * .  17 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

Philip’s  scheme  of  aggrandizement  —  Projected  invasion  of  France  —  Internal 
condition  of  France  —  Character  of  Henry  of  Navarre  —  Preparation  for 
action  —  Battle  of  Ivry — Victory  of  the  French  king  over  the  League  — 
Reluctance  of  the  king  to  attack  the  French  capital  —  Siege  of  Paris  — The 
Pope  indisposed  towards  the  League  —  Extraordinary  demonstration  of 
ecclesiastics  —  Influence  of  the  priests  —  Extremities  of  the  siege  —  At¬ 
tempted  negotiation  —  State  of  Philip’s  army  —  Difficult  position  of  Farnese 
— March  of  the  allies  to  the  relief  of  Paris  —  Lagny  taken  and  the  city 
relieved  —  Desertion  of  the  king’s  army  —  Siege  of  Corbeil  — Death  of  Pope 
Sixtus  V. — Re-capture  of  Lagny  and  Corbeil  —  Return  of  Parma  to  the 
Netherlands  —  Result  of  the  expedition .  42 


VI 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  III. 


CHAPTER  XXI Y. 

Prince  Maurice  —  State  of  the  Republican  army —Martial  science  of  the  period 

_ Reformation  of  the  military  system  by  Prince  Maurice  —  His  military 

genius  — Campaign  in  the  Netherlands  —  The  fort  and  town  of  Zutphen 
taken  by  the  States’  forces  —  Attack  upon  Deventer  —  Its  capitulation  — 
Advance  on  Groningen,  Delfzyl,  Opslag,  Yementil,  Steen wyk,  and  other 
places  —  Farnese  besieges  Fort  Knodsenburg  —  Prince  Maurice  hastens  to 
its  relief —  A  skirmish  ensues,  resulting  in  the  discomfiture  of  the  Spanish 
and  Italian  troops  —  Surrender  of  Hulst  and  Nymegen  —  Close  of  military 
operations  of  the  year .  92 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

War  in  Brittany  and  Normandy  —  Death  of  La  Noue  —  Religious  and  political 
persecution  in  Paris  —  Murder  of  President  Brisson,  Larcher,  andTardif — 
The  sceptre  of  France  offered  to  Philip  —  The  Duke  of  Mayenne  punishes 
the  murderers  of  the  magistrates— Speech  of  Henry’s  envoy  to  the  States- 
General— Letter  of  Queen  Elizabeth  to  Henry — Siege  of  Rouen  —  Far¬ 
nese  leads  an  army  to  its  relief — The  king  is  wounded  in  a  skirmish  — 
Siege  of  Rue  by  Farnese — Henry  raises  the  siege  of  Rouen— Siege  of 
Caudebec  —  Critical  position  of  Farnese  and  his  army — Victory  of  the  Duke 
of  Mercceur  in  Brittany . . . . .  120 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

Return  of  Prince  Maurice  to  the  siege  of  Steenwyk  —  Capitulation  of  the 
besieged  —  Effects  of  the  introduction  of  mining  operations  —  Maurice  be¬ 
sieges  Coeworden — Verdugo  attempts  to  relieve  the  city,  but  fails  —  The 
city  capitulates,  and  Prince  Maurice  retreats  into  winter  quarters. . . .  15G 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 

Negotiations  between  Queen  Elizabeth  and  the  States  —  Aspect  of  affairs 
between  England  and  the  Netherlands  —  Complaints  by  the  Hollanders  of 
the  piratical  acts  of  the  English  —  The  Dutch  Envoy  and  the  English 
Government  —  Caron’s  interview  with  Elizabeth  —  The  Queen  promises 
redress  of  grievances .  170 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

Influence  of  the  rule  and  character  of  Philip  II.  —  Heroism  of  the  sixteenth 
century  —  Contest  for  the  French  throne  —  Character  and  policy  of  the 
Duke  of  Mayenne  —  Escape  of  the  Duke  of  Guise  from  Castle  Tours — Pro¬ 
positions  for  the  marriage  of  the  Infanta — Plotting  of  the  Catholic  party — 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  III. 


Vll 


Grounds  of  Philip’s  pretensions  to  the  crown  of  France  —  Motives  of  the 
Duke  of  Parma  maligned  by  Commander  Moreo  —  He  justifies  himself  to 
the  king— View  of  the  private  relations  between  Philip  and  the  Duke  of 
Mayenne  and  their  sentiments  towards  each  other  —  Disposition  of  the 
French  politicians  and  soldiers  towards  Philip — Peculiar  commercial  pur¬ 
suits  of  Philip  — Confused  state  of  affairs  in  France  —  Treachery  of  Philip., 
towards  the  Duke  of  Parma  —  Recall  of  the  duke  to  Spain  —  His  sufferings 
and  death . 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

Effect  of  the  death  of  Farnese  upon  Philip’s  schemes  Priestly  flattery  and 
counsel  — Assembly  of  the  States-General  of  France  —  Meeting  of  the 
Leao-uers  at  the  Louvre  —  Conference  at  Surene  between  the  chiefs  of  the 
League  and  the  “political”  leaders— Henry  convokes  an  assembly  of 
bishops,  theologians,  and  others  —  Strong  feeling  on  all  sides  on  the  sub¬ 
ject  of  the  succession  —  Philip  commands  that  the  Infanta  and  the  Duke 
of  Guise  be  elected  King  and  Queen  of  France  —  Manifesto  of  the  Duke  ol 
*  Mayenne  —  Formal  re-admission  of  Henry  to  the  Roman  faith  The  pope 
refuses  to  consent  to  his  reconciliation  with  the  Church  His  consecration 
with  the  sacred  off -Entry  of  the  king  into  Paris  -  Departure  of  the 
Spanish  garrison  from  the  capital— Dissimulation  of  the  Duke  of  Mayenne 

_ He  makes  terms  with  Henry  —  Grief  of  Queen  Elizabeth  on  receipt^  of 

the  communications  from  France. . . . 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

Prince  Maurice  lays  siege  to  Gertruydenberg  —  Advantages  of  the  new  system 
of  warfare  —  Progress  of  .the  besieging  operations  —  Superiority  of  Maurice  s 
manoeuvres  — Adventure  of  Count  Philip  of  Nassau  — Capitulation  of 
Gertruydenberg  —  Mutiny  among  the  Spanish  troops  Attempt  ol  er- 
duo-o  to  retake  Coeworden  -  Suspicions  of  treason  in  the  English  garrison 
at  Ostend  — Letter  of  Queen  Elizabeth  to  Sir  Edward  Norris  on  the  sub¬ 
ject— Second  attempt  on  Coeworden— Assault  on  Groningen  by  Maurice 
—  Second  adventure  of  Philip  of  Nassau  —  Narrow  escape  of  Prince  Mau¬ 
rice  _  Surrender  of  Groningen  —  Particulars  of  the  siege  —  Question  ol 
religious  toleration  — Progress  of  the  United  Netherlands— Condition  of 
the  “obedient”  Netherlands —Incompetency  of  Peter  Mansfeld  as  Go¬ 
vernor  —  Archduke  Ernest,  the  successor  of  Farnese— Difficulties  of  his 
position  —  His  unpopularity — Great  achievements  of  the  republicans  ■ 
Triumphal  entry  of  Ernest  into  Brussels  and  Antwerp  —  Magnificence  of 
the  spectacle  — Disaffection  of  the  Spanish  troops—  Great  military  rebel¬ 
lion  _  Philip’s  proposal  to  destroy  the  English  fleet  —  His  assassination 
plans— Plot  to  poison  Queen  Elizabeth  —  Conspiracies  against  Prince 
Maurice  —  Futile  attempts  at  negotiation  —  Proposal  of  a  marriage  between 
Henry  and  the  Infanta  —  Secret  mission  from  Henry  to  the  King  of  Spam 
-Special  dispatch  to  England  and  the  States -Henry  obtains  further  aid 
from  Queen  Elizabeth  and  the  States-Council  —  Anxiety  of  the  Protestant 
countries  to  bring  about  a  war  with  Spain  — Aspect  of  affairs  at  the  close 
of  the  year  1594 . 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  III. 


Vlll 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

Formal  declaration  of  war  against  Spain  > —  Marriage  festivities  —  Death  of 
Archduke  Ernest  —  His  year  of  government  —  Fuentes  declared  governor- 
general —  Disaffection  of  the  Duke  of  Arschot  and  Count  Arenberg  — 
Death  of  the  Duke  of  Arschot  —  Fuentes  besieges  Le  Catelet  —  The  fortress 
of  Ham,  sold  to  the  Spanish  by  De  Gomeron,  besieged  and  taken  by  the 
Duke  of  Bouillon  —  Execution  of  De  Gomeron  —  Death  of  Colonel  Verdugo 
— Siege  of  Dourlens  by  Fuentes  —  Death  of  La  Motte  —  Death  of  Charles 
Mansfeld  —  Total  defeat  of  the  French  —  Murder  of  Admiral  De  Villars  — 
Dourlens  captured,  and  the  garrison  and  citizens  put  to  the  sword  — 
Military  operations  in  eastern  Netherlands  and  on  the  Rhine  —  Maurice 
lays  siege  to  Groento  —  Mondragon  hastening  to  its  relief,  Prince  Maurice 
raises  the  siege  —  Skirmish  between  Maurice  and  Mondragon  —  Death  of 
Philip  of  Nassau —  Death  of  Mondragon  —  Bombardment  and  surrender  of 
Weerd  Castle  — Maurice  retires  into  winter  quarters —  Campaign  of  Henry 
IV.  —  He  besieges  Dijon — Surrender  of  Dijon  —  Absolution  granted  to 
Henry  by  the  pope  —  Career  of  Balagny  at  Cambray  —  Progress  of  the 
siege  —  Capitulation  of  the  town  —  Suicide  of  the  Princess  of  Cambray, 
wife  of  Balagny . .  317 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

Archduke-Cardinal  Albert  appointed  governor  of  the  Netherlands  —  Return 
of  Philip  William  from  captivity  —  His  adherence  to  the  King  of  Spain  — 
Notice  of  the  Marquis  of  Varambon,  Count  Varax,  and  other  new  officers 
—  Henry’s  communications  with  Queen  Elizabeth  —  Madame  de  Mon- 
ceaux  —  Conversation  of  Henry  with  the  English  ambassador  —  Marseilles 
secured  by  the  Duke  of  Guise  —  The  fort  of  Rysbank  taken  by  De  Rosne— 
Calais  in  the  hands  of  the  Spanish  —  Assistance  from  England  solicited  by 
Henry — Unhandsome  conditions  proposed  by  Elizabeth  —  Annexation  ot 
Calais  to  the  obedient  provinces  —  Pirates  of  Dunkirk —  Uneasiness  of  the 
Netherlanders  with  regard  to  the  designs  of  Elizabeth  —  Her  protestations 
of  sincerity  —  Expedition  of  Dutch  and  English  forces  to  Spain  —  Attack 
on  the  Spanish  war-ships  —  Victory  of  the  allies  —  Flag  of  the  Republic 
planted  on  the  fortress  of  Cadiz  —  Capitulation  of  the  city  —  Letter  of 
Elizabeth  to  the  Dutch  admiral  —  State  of  affairs  in  France  —  Proposition 
of  the  Duke  of  Montpensier  for  the  division  of  the  kingdom —  Successes  ot 
the  Cardinal  Archduke  in  Normandy  —  He  proceeds  to  Flanders — Siege 
and  capture  of  Hulst  —  Projected  alliance  against  Spain  —  Interview  of 
De  Sancy  with  Lord  Burgliley  —  Diplomatic  conference  at  Greenwich  — 
Formation  of  a  league  against  Spain  —  Duplicity  of  the  treaty  —  Affairs  in 
Germany  —  Battle  between  the  Emperor  and  the  Grand  Turk  —  Endeavour 
of  Philip  to  counteract  the  influence  of  the  league  —  His  interference  in 
the  affairs  of  Germany —  Secret  intrigue  of  Henry  with  Spain — Philip’s 
second  attempt  at  the  conquest  of  England .  352 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  III. 


IX 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

Struggle  of  tlie  Netherlands  against  Spain  — March  to  Turnhout  —  Retreat  of 
the  Spanish  commander — Pursuit  and  attack  —  Demolition  of  the  Spanish 
army— Surrender  of  the  garrison  of  Turnhout  —  Improved  military  science 
—Moral  effect  of  the  battle— The  campaign  in  France —Attack  on  Amiens 
by  the  Spaniards  —  Sack  and  burning  of  the  city  —  De  Rosny’s  plan  for 
reorganisation  of  the  finances— Jobbery  and  speculation— Philip's  repudia¬ 
tion  of  his  debts  —  Effects  of  the  measure  —  Renewal  of  persecution  by  the 
Jesuits -Contention  between  Turk  and  Christian  -  Envoy  from  the  King 
of  Poland  to  the  Hague  to  plead  for  reconciliation  with  Philip  —  His 
subsequent  presentation  to  Queen  Elizabeth  -  Military  events- Recovery 
of  Amiens  — Feeble  operations  of  the  confederate  powers  against  Spain 
Marriage  of  the  Princess  Emilia,  sister  of  Maurice— Reduction  of  the  castle 
and  town  of  Alphen  —  Surrender  of  Rheinberg  —  Capitulation  of  Meurs  — 
Surrender  of  Grol  —  Storming  and  taking  of  Brevoort  —  Capitulation  of 
Enschede,  Ootmarsum,  Oldenzaal,  and  Lingen  Rebellion  of  the  Spanish 
garrisons  in  Antwerp  and  Ghent— Progress  of  the  peace  movement  between 
Henry  and  Philip  — Relations  of  the  three  confederate  powers  —  Henry’s 
scheme  for  reconciliation  with  Spain  —  His  acceptance  of  Philip  s  offer  oi 
peace  announced  to  Elizabeth  —  Endeavours  for  a  general  peace  .... 


CHAPTER  XXXIY. 

Mission  of  the  States  to  Henry  to  prevent  the  consummation  of  peace  with 

Spain _ Proposal  of  Henry  to  elevate  Prince  Maurice  to  the  sovereignty 

of  the  States  — Embarkation  of  the  States’  envoys  for  England— Their 
interview  with  Queen  Elizabeth  —  Return  of  the  envoys  from  England  — 
Demand  of  Elizabeth  for  repayment  of  her  advances  to  the  republic  — 
Second  embassy  to  England  —  Final  arrangement  between  the  Queen 
and  the  States . . 


CHAPTER  XXX Y. 

Negotiations  between  France  and  Spain  —  Conclusion  of  the  treaty  of  peace 
Purchase  of  the  allegiance  of  the  French  nobles  —  Transfer  of  the  Nether¬ 
lands  to  Albert  and  Isabella  —  Marriages  of  the  Infante  and  Infanta 
Illness  of  Philip  II.  —  Horrible  nature  of  his  malady  —  His  last  hours  and 
death  —  Review  of  his  reign  — Extent  of  the  Spanish  dominions  —  Causes 
of  the  greatness  of  Spain,  and  of  its  downfall  —  Philip’s  wars  and  their 
expenses — The  Crown  revenues  of  Spain  —  Character  of  the  people  —  Their 
inordinate  self-esteem  —  Consequent  deficiency  of  labour  —  Ecclesiastical 
Government  —  Revenues  of  the  Church  —  Characteristics  of  the  Spanish 
clergy  —  Foreign  commerce  of  Spain  —  Governmental  system  of  Philip  II. 
Founded  on  the  popular  ignorance  and  superstition  —  Extinction  of  liberty 
in  Spain  —  The  Holy  Inquisition  —  The  work  and  character  of  Philip  498 


X 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  III. 


CHAPTEE  XXXVI. 

Commercial  prospects  of  Holland  —  Travels  of  Jolin  Huygen  van  Linschoten 
—  Their  effect  on  the  trade  and  prosperity  of  the  Netherlands  —  Progress 
of  nautical  and  geographical  science  — Maritime  exploration  — Fantastic 
notions  respecting  the  polar  regions — State  of  nautical  science  —  First 
Arctic  expedition  —  Success  of  the  voyagers  — Failure  of  the  second  expe¬ 
dition —  Third  attempt  to  discover  the  north-east  passage  —  Discovery  of 
Spitzbergen — Scientific  results  of  the  voyage  —  Adventures  in  the  frozen 
regions -r- Death  of  William  Barendz — Return  of  the  voyagers  to  Am¬ 
sterdam —  Southern  expedition  against  the  Spanish  power — Disasters 
attendant  upon  it  —  Extent  of  Dutch  discovery .  544 


CHAPTEE  XXXVII. 

Military  Operations  in  the  Netherlands  —  Designs  of  the  Spanish  Commander 
—  Siege  of  Orsoy  —  Advance  upon  Rheinberg  —  Murder  of  the  Count  of 
Broeck  and  his  garrison  —  Capture  of  Rees  and  Emmerich  Outrages  of  the 
Spanish  soldiers  in  the  peaceful  provinces  —  Inglorious  attempt  to  avenge 
the  hostilities— State  of  trade  in  the  Provinces  —  Naval  expedition  under 
Van  der  Does  —  Arrival  of  Albert  and  Isabella  at  Brussels  —  Military  ope¬ 
rations  of  Prince  Maurice  —  Negotiation  between  London  and  Brussels 
Henry’s  determination  to  enact  the  Council  of  Trent  His  projected 
marriage — Queen  Elizabeth  and  Envoy  Caron  — Peace  proposals  of  Spain 
to  Elizabeth  —  Conferences  at  Gertruydenberg  —  Uncertain  state  of  affairs. 


TIE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


Effect  of  the  Assassination  of  Henry  III.  —  Concentration  of  forces  for  the 
invasion  of  France  — The  Netherlands  determine  on  striking  a  blow  for 
freedom  — Organization  of  a  Dutch  army  —  Stratagem  to  surprise  the 
castle  of  Breda  —  Intrepidity  and  success  of  the  enterprise. 

The  dagger  of  Jacques  Clement  had  done  much,  and  was 
likely  to  do  more,  to  change  the  face  of  Europe.  Another 
proof  was  afforded  that  assassination  had  become  a  regular 
and  recognised  factor  in  the  political  problems  of  the  six¬ 
teenth  century.  Another  illustration  was  exhibited  of  the 
importance  of  the  individual— even  although  that  individual 
was  in  himself  utterly  despicable— to  the  working  out  of  great 
historical  results.  It  seemed  that  the  murder  of  Heni}  III. 
that  forlorn  caricature  of  kingship  and  of  manhood  was  likely 
to  prove  eminently  beneficial  to  the  cause  of  the  Xetherland 
commonwealth.  Five  years  earlier,  the  muidei  of  William 
the  Silent  had  seemed  to  threaten  its  very  existence. 

For  Philip  the  Prudent,  now  that  France  was  deprived  of 
a  head,  conceived  that  the  time  had  arrived  when  he  might 
himself  assume  the  sovereignty  of  that  kingdom.  While  a 
thing  of  straw,  under  the  name  of  Charles  X.  and  shape  of 
a  Cardinal  Bourbon,  was  set  up  to  do  battle  with  that  living 
sovereign  and  soldier,  the  heretic  Bearnese,  the  Puke  of 
Parma  was  privately  ordered  to  bend  all  his  energies  towards 
the  conquest  of  the  realm  in  dispute,  under  pretence  of 

assisting  the  Holy  League. 
vol  hi. — B. 


9  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  ^  Chap.  XXI. 

« 

Accordingly,  early  in  the  year  1590,  Alexander  concen¬ 
trated  a  considerable  force  on  the  French  frontier  in  Artois 
and  Hainault,  apparently  threatening  Bergen-op-Zoom  and 
other  cities  in  South  Holland,  hut  in  reality  preparing  to 
invade  France.  The  Duke  of  Mayennef  who  had  assumed 
the  title  of  lieutenant-general  of  that  kingdom,  had  already 
visited  him  at  Brussels  in  order  to  arrange  .the  plan  of  the 
campaign.1 

While  these  measures  were  in  preparation,  an  opportunity 
was  likely  to  be  afforded  to  the  Netherlanders  of  striking  a 
blow  or  two  for  liberty  and  independence  ;  now  that  all  the 
force  that  possibly  could  he  spared  was  to  he  withdrawn  by 
their  oppressors  and  to  he  used  for  the  subjugation  of  their 
neighbours.  The  question  was  whether  there  would  he  a 
statesman  and  a  soldier  ready  to  make  use  of  this  golden 

opportunity. 

There  was  a  statesman  ripe  and  able  who,  since  the  death 
of  the  Taciturn,  had  been  growing  steadily  in  the  estimation 
of  his  countrymen  and  who  already  was  paramount  in  the 
councils,  of  the  States-General.  There  was  a  soldier,  .  still 
very  young,  who  was  possessed  of  the  strongest  hereditary 
claims  to  the  confidence  and  affection  of  the  United  Pro¬ 
vinces  and  who  had  been  passing  a  studious  youth  in  making 
himself  worthy  of  his  father  and  his  country.  Fortunately, 
too,  the  statesman  and  the  soldier  were  working  most  har¬ 
moniously  together.  J ohn  of  Olden-Barneveld,  w  ith  his 
great  experience  and  vast  and  steady  intellect,  stood  side  by 
side  with  young  Maurice  of  Nassau  at  this  important  crisis 
in  the  history  of  the  new  commonwealth. 

At  length  the  twig  was  becoming  the  tree — tandem  fit 
surculus  arbor — according  to  the  device  assumed  by  the  son 
of  William  the  Silent  after  his  father’s  death. 

The  Netherlands  had  sore  need  of  a  practical  soldier  to  con¬ 
tend  with  the  scientific  and  professional  tyrants  against  whom 
they  had  so  long  been  struggling,  and  Maurice,  although  so 
young,  was  pre-eminently  a  practical  man.  He  was  no  enthu- 

1  Bor,  vol.  III.  B.  xxvi.  pp.  516,  518. 


1590.  INTELLECTUAL  TRAINING  OF  PRINCE  MAURICE.  3 

* 

siast  )  lie  was  no  poet.  He  was  at  tliat  period  certainly  no 
politician.  Not  often  at  the  age  of  twenty  has  a  man  devoted 
himself  for  years  to  pure  mathematics  for  the  purpose  of  saving 
his  country.  Yet  this  was  Maurice’s  scheme.  Four  years  long 
and  more,  when  most  other  youths  in  his  position  and  at  that 
epoch  would  have  been  alternating  between  frivolous  plea¬ 
sures  and  brilliant  exploits  in  the  field,  the  young  prince  had 
spent  laborious  days  and  nights  with  the  learned  Simon 
Stevinus  of  Bruges.  The  scientific  work  which  they  com¬ 
posed  in  common,  the  credit  of  which  the  master  assigned  to 
the  pupil,  might  have  been  more  justly  attributed  perhaps 
to  the  professor  than  to  the  prince,  hut  it  is  certain  that 
Maurice  was  an  apt  scholar. 

In  that  country,  ever  held  in  existence  by  main  human 
force  against  the  elements,  the  arts  of  engineering,  hydro¬ 
statics  and  kindred  branches  were  of  necessity  much  culti¬ 
vated.  It  was  reserved  for  the  young  mathematician  to 
make  them  as  potent  against  a  human  foe.  • 

Moreover,  there  were  symptoms  that  the  military  disci¬ 
pline,  learning  and  practical  skill,  which  had  almost  made 
Spain  the  mistress  of  the  world,  were  sinking  into  decay. 
Farnese,  although  still  in  the  prime  of  lite,  was  broken  in 
health,  and  there  seemed  no  one  fit  to  take  the  place  of  him¬ 
self  and  his  lieutenants  when  they  should  be  removed  from 
the  scene  where  they  had  played  their  parts  so  consum¬ 
mately.  Thelrrmy  of  the  Netherlands  was  still  to  be  created. 
Thus  far  the  contest  had  been  mainly  carried  on  by  domestic 
militia  and  foreign  volunteers  or  hirelings.  The  train-bands 
of  the  cities  were  aided  in  their  struggles  against  Spanish 
pikemen  and  artillerists,  Italian  and  Albanian  cavaliy  b} 
the  German  riders,  whom  every  little  potentate  was  anxious 
to  sell  to  either  combatant  according  to  the  highest  bid, 
and  by  English  mercenaries,  whom  the  love  of  adventure  or 
the  hope  of  plunder  sent  forth  under  such  well-seasoned 
captains  as  Williams  and  Morgan,  Yere  and  the  Norrises, 
Baskerville  and  Willoughby. 

But  a  Dutch  army  there  was  none  and  Maurice  haci 


I 


^  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXI. 

determined  that  at  last  a  national  force  should  be.  created. 
In  this  enterprise  he  was  aided  and  guided  by  his  cousin 
Lewis  William,  Stadtholder  of  Friesland— the  quaint,  rugged 
little  hero,  young  in  years  but  almost  a  veteran  in  the  wars 
of  freedom,  who  was  as  genial  and  intellectual  in  council  as 

he  was  reckless  and  impulsive  in  the  field. 

Lewis  William  had  felt  that  the  old  military  art  was  dying 
out  and  that  there  was  nothing  to  take  its  place.  He  was  a 
diligent  student  of  antiquity.  He  had  revived  in  the  swamps 
of  Friesland  the  old  manoeuvres,  the  quickness  of  wheeling, 
the  strengthening,  without  breaking  ranks  or  columns,  by 
which  the  ancient  Romans  had  performed  so  much  excellent 
work  in  their  day,  and  which  seemed  to  have  passed  entirely 
into  oblivion.  Old  colonels  and  rittmasters,  who  had  nevei 
heard  of  Leo  the  Thracian  nor  the ,  Macedonian  phalanx, 
smiled  and  shrugged  their  shoulders,  as  they  listened  to  the 
questions  of  the  young  count,  or  gazed  with  profound 
astonishment  at  the  eccentric  evolutions  to  which  he  was 
accustoming  his  troops.  From  the  heights  of  superior 
wisdom  they  looked  down  with  pity  upon  these  innovations 
on  the  good  old  battle  order.  They  were  accustomed  to  great 
solid  squares  of  troops  wheeling  in  one  way,  steadily,  delibe¬ 
rately,  all  together,  by  one  impulse  and  as  one  man.  It  was 
true  that  in  narrow  fields,  and  when  the  enemy  was  pressing, 
such  stately  evolutions  often  became  impossible  or  ensured 
defeat  ;  but  when  the  little  Stadtholder  drilled  his  soldiers 
in  ^small  bodies  of  various  shapes,  teaching  them  to  turn, 
advance,  retreat,  wheel  in  a  variety  of  ways,  sometimes  in 
considerable  masses,  sometimes  man  by  man,  sending  the 
foremost  suddenly  to  the  rear,  or  bringing  the  hindmost  ranks 
to  the  front,  and  began  to  attempt  all  this  in  narrow  fields  as 
well  as  in  wide  ones,  and  when  the  enemy  was  in  sight,  men 
stood  aghast  at  his  want  of  reverence,  or  laughed  at  him  as  a 
pedant.  But  there  came  a  day  when  they  did  not  laugh, 
neither  friends  nor  enemies.  Meantime  the  two  cousins, 
who  directed  all  the  military  operations  in  the  provinces, 
understood  each  other  thoroughly  and  proceeded  to  perfect 


•# 


1590.  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  ARMY.  5 

their  new  system,  to  he  adapted  at  a  later  period  by  all 
civilized  nations.2 

The  regular  army  of  the  Netherlands  was  small  in  number 
at  that  moment — not  more  than  twenty  thousand  foot  with 
two  thousand  horse — but  it  was  well  disciplined,  well  equipped, 
and,  what  was  of  great  importance,  regularly  paid.  Old 
campaigners  complained  that  in  the  halcyon  days  of  paper 
enrolments,  a  captain  could  earn  more  out  of  his  company 
than  a  colonel  now  received  for  his  whole  regiment.  The 
days  when  a  thousand  men  were  paid  for,  with  a  couple  of 
hundred  in  the  field,  were  passing  away  for  the  United  Pro¬ 
vinces  and  existed  only  for  Italians  and  Spaniards.  While, 
therefore,  mutiny  on  an  organised  and  extensive  scale  seemed 
almost  the  normal  condition  of  the  unpaid  legions  of  Philip, 
the  little  army  of  Maurice  was  becoming  the  model  for 
Europe  to  imitate. 

The  United  Provinces  were  as  yet  very  far  from  being 
masters  of  their  own  territory.  Many  of  their  most  important 
cities  still  held  for  the  king.  In  Brabant,  such,  towns  as 
Breda  with  its  many  dependencies  and  Gertruydenberg  ;  on 
the  Waal,  the  strong  and  wealthy  Nymegen  which  Martin 
Schenk  had  perished  in  attempting  to  surprise  ;  on  the  Yssel, 
the  thriving  city  of  Zutphen,  whose  fort  had  been  surrendered 
by  the  traitor  York,  and  the  stately  Deventer,  which  had 
been  placed  in  Philip’s  possession  by  the  treachery  of 
Sir '  William  Stanley ;  on  the  borders  of  Drenthe,  the 
almost  impregnable  Koevorden,  key  to  the  whole  Zwollian 
country;  and  in  the  very  heart  of  ancient  Netherland, 
Groningen,  capital  of  the  province  of  the  same  name,  which 
the  {reason  of  Benneberg  had  sold  to  the  Spanish  tyrant  ; 
all  these  flourishing  cities  and  indispensable  strongholds  were 
garrisoned  by  foreign  troops,  making  the  idea  of  Dutch 
independence  a  delusion. 

While  Alexander  of  Parma,  sorely  against  his  will  and  in 
obedience  to  what  he  deemed  the  insane  suggestions  of  his 
master,  was  turning  his  back  on  the  Netherlands  in  order  to 

2  Reyd,  viii.  162. 


6 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXI. 


relieve  Paris,  now  hard  pressed  by  the  Bearnese,  an  oppor¬ 
tunity  offered  itself  of  making  at  least  a  beginning  in  the 
great  enterprise  of  recovering  these  most  valuable  posses¬ 
sions. 

The  fair  and  pleasant  city  of  Breda  lies  on  the  Merk,  a 
slender  stream,  navigable  for  small  vessels,  which  finds  its 
way  to  the  sea  through  the  great  canal  of  the  Dintel.  It 
had  been  the  property  of  the  Princes  of  Orange,  Barons  of 
Breda,  and  had  passed  with  the  other  possessions  of  the  family 
to  the  house  of  Chalons-Nassau.  Henry  of  Nassau  had,  half 
a  century  before,  adorned  and  strengthened  it  by  a  splendid 
palace-fortress  which,  surrounded  by  a  deep  and  double 
moat,  thoroughly  commanded  the  town.  A  garrison  of  five 
companies  of  Italian  infantry  and  one  of  cavalry  lay  in  this 
castle,  which  was  under  the  command  of  Edward  Lanzavecchia, 
governor  both  of  Breda  and  of  the  neighbouring  Gertruy- 
denherg. 

Breda  was  an  important  strategical  position.  It  was 
moreover  the  feudal  superior  of  a  large  number  of  adjacent 
villages  as  well  as  of  the  cities  Osterhout,  Steenherg  and 
Rosendaal.  It  was  obviously  not  more  desirable  for  Maurice 
of  Nassau  to  recover  his  patrimonial  city  than  it  was  for  the 
States-General  to  drive  the  Spaniards  from  so  important  a 
position.3 

In  the  month  of  February,  1590,  Maurice,  being  then  at 
the  castle  of  Yoorn  in  Zeeland,  received  a  secret  visit  from  a 
boatman,  Adrian  van  der  Berg  by  name,  who  lived  at  the 
village  of  Leur,  eight  or  ten  miles  from  Breda,  and  who  had 
long  been  in  the  habit  of  supplying  the  castle  with  turf. 
In  the  absence  of  woods  and  coal  mines,  the  habitual  fuel  of 
the  country  was  furnished  by  those  vast  relics  of  the  ante¬ 
diluvian  forests  which  abounded  in  the  still  partially  sub¬ 
merged  soil.  The  skipper  represented  that  his  vessel  had 
passed  so  often  into  and  out  of  the  castle  as  to  he  hardly  liable 
to  search  by  the  guard  on  its  entrance.  He  suggested  a 

8  Bor,  III.  xxvi.  518,  seqq.  Giucciardini  in  voce.  Meteren,  xvi.  290,  291, 
Em.  van  Reyd,  viii.  162-163.  Bentivoglio,  II.  v.  336,  338. 


1590.  PROJECT  TO  SURPRISE  THE  CASTLE  OF  BREDA.  7 

stratagem  by  which  it  might  be  possible  to  surprise  the 

stronghold.  # 

The  prince  approved  of  the  scheme  and  immediately  con- 

suited  with  Barneveld.  That  statesman  at  once  proposed, 
as  a  suitable  man  to  carry  out  the  daring  venture,  Captain 
Charles  de  Heraugiere,  a  nobleman  of  Cambray,  who  had 
been  long  in  the  service  of  the  States,  had  distinguished 
himself  at  Sluys  and  on  other  occasions,  but  who  had  been 
implicated  in  Leicester’s  nefarious  plot  to  gain  possession  of 
the  city  of  Leyden  a  few  years  before.*  The  Advocate 
expressed  confidence  that  he  would  be  grateful  for  so  signa 
an  opportunity  of  retrieving  a  somewhat  damaged  reputation. 
Heraugiere,  who  was  with  his  company  in  Y oorn  at  the  mo¬ 
ment/eagerly  signified  his  desire  to  attempt  the  enterprise  as 
soon  as  the  matter  was  communicated  to  him  ;  avowing  the 
deepest  devotion  to  the  house  of  William  the  Silent  and 
perfect  willingness  to  sacrifice  his  life,  if  necessary,  in  its 
cause  and  that  of  the  country.  Philip  Nassau,  cousin  of 
Prince  Maurice  and  brother  of  Lewis  William,  governor  of 
Gorcum,  Horcum,  and  Lowenstein  Castle  and  colonel  of  a 
regiment  of  cavalry,  was  also  taken  into  the  secret,  as  well 
as  Count  Hohenlo,  President  Van  der  Myle  and  a  few  others  ; 
but  a  mystery  was  carefully  spread  and  maintained  over  the 

undertaking. 

Heraugiere  selected  sixty-eight  men,  on  whose  personal 
daring  and  patience  he  knew  that  he  could  rely,  from  the 
regiments  of  Philip  Nassau  and  of  Famam,  governor  of  the 
neighbouring  city  of  Heusden,  and  from  his  own  company. 
Besides  himself,  the  officers  to  command  the  party  were  cap¬ 
tains  Logier  and  Fervet,  and  lieutenant  Matthew  Held.  The 
names  of  such  devoted*  soldiers  deserve  to  be  commemorated 
*  and  are  still  freshly  remembered  by  their  countrymen. 

On  the  25th  of  February,  Maurice  and  his  staff  went  to 
Willemstad  on  the  Isle  of  Klundert,  it  having  been  given  out 
on  his  departure  from  the  Hague  that  his  destination  was 
Dort.  On  the  same  night  at  about  eleven  o’clock,  by  the 
4  Yol.  II.  of  this  work,  ch.  xvii.  p.  833,  seqq. 


8 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXI. 


feeble  light  of  a  waning  moon,  Heraugiere  and  bis  band  came 
to  the  Swertsenburg  ferry,  as  agreed  upon,  to  meet  the  boat¬ 
man.  They  found  neither  him  nor  his  vessel,  and  they 
wandered  about  half  the  night,  very  cold,  very  indignant, 
much  perplexed.  At  last,  on  their  way  back,  they  came 
upon  the  skipper  at  the  village  of  Terheyde,  who  made  the 
extraordinary  excuse  that  he  had  overslept  himself  and  that 
he  feared  the  plot  had  been  discovered.  It  being  too  late  to 
make  any  attempt  that  night,  a  meeting  was  arranged  for 
the  following  evening.  No  suspicion  of  treachery  occurred  to 
any  of  the  party,  although  it  became  obvious  that  the  skipper 
had  grown  faint-hearted.  He  did  not  come  on  the  next 
night  to  the  appointed  place  but  he  sent  two  nephews,  boat¬ 
men  like  himself,  whom  he  described  as  dare-devils. 

On  Monday  night,  the  26th  of  February,  the  seventy  went 
on  board  the  vessel,  which  was  apparently  filled  with  blocks 
of  turf,  and  packed  themselves  closely  in  the  hold.5  They 
moved  slowly  during  a  little  time  on  their  perilous  voyage  ; 
for  the  winter  wind,  thick  with  fog  and  sleet,  blew  directly 
down  the  river,  bringing  along  with  it  huge  blocks  of  ice  and 
scooping  the  water  out  of  the  dangerous  shallows,  so  as  to 
render  the  vessel  at  any  moment  liable  to  be  stranded.  At 
last  the  navigation  became  impossible  and  they  came  to  a 
standstill.  From  Monday  night  till  Thursday  morning  those 
seventy  Hollanders  lay  packed  like  herrings  in  the  hold  of 
their  little  vessel,  suffering  from  hunger,  thirst,  and  deadly 
cold  ;  yet  not  one  of  them  attempted  to  escape  or  murmured 
a  wish  to  abandon  the  enterprise.  Even  when  the  third 
morning  dawned  there  was  no  better  prospect  of  proceeding  ; 
for  the  remorseless  east  wind  still  blew  a  gale  against  them, 
ancf*  the  shoals  which  beset  their  p^fth  had  become  more 
dangerous  than  ever.  It  was,  however,  absolutely  necessary 
to  recruit  exhausted  nature,  unless  the  adventurers  were  to 
drop  powerless  on  the  threshold  when  they  should  at  last 
arrive  at  their  destination.  In  all  secrecy  they  went  ashore 
at  a  lonely  castle  called  Nordam,  where  they  remained  to 
5  Bor,  Reyd,  Meteren,  Bentivoglio,  vM  sup. 


1590.  PERILS  OF  THE  UNDERTAKING.  9 

refresh  themselves  until  about  eleven  at  night,  when  one  of 
the  boatmen  came  to  them  with  the  intelligence  that  the  wind 
had  changed  and  was  now  blowing  freshly  in  from  the  sea. 
Yet  the  voyage  of  a  few  leagues,  on  which  they  were  em¬ 
barked,  lasted  nearly  two  whole  days  longer.  On  Saturday 
afternoon  they  passed  through  the  last  sluice,  and  at  about 
three  o'clock  the  last  boom  was  shut  behind  them.  There 
was  no  retreat  possible  for  them  now.  The  seventy  were  to 
take  the  strong  castle  and  city  of  Breda  or  to  lay  down  their 
lives,  every  man  of  them.  No  quarter  and  short  shrift  such 
was  their  certain  destiny,  should  that  half-crippled,  half-frozen 
little  band  not  succeed  in  their  task  before  another  sunrise. 

They  were  now  in  the  outer  harbour  and  not  far  from  the 
Watergate  which  led  into  the  inner  castle-haven.  Presently 
an  officer  of  the  guard  put  off  in  a  skiff  and  came  on  board 
the  vessel.  He  held  a  little  conversation  with  the  two  boat-  * 
men,  observed  that  the  castle  was  much  in  want  of  fuel,  took 
a  survey  of  the  turf  with  which  the  ship  was  apparently  laden, 
and  then  lounged  into  the  little  cabin.  Here  he  was  only 
separated  by  a  sliding  trap-door  from  the  interior  of  the 
vessel.  Those  inside  could  hear  and  see  his  every  movement. 
Had  there  been  a  single  cough  or  sneeze  from  within,  the  true 
character  of  the  cargo,  then  making  its  way  into  the  castle, 
would  have  been  discovered  and  every  man  would  within  ten 
minutes  have  been  butchered.  But  the  officer,  unsuspecting, 
soon  took  his  departure,  saying  that  he  would  send  some  men 
to  warp  the  vessel  into  the  castle  dock. 

Meantime,  as  the  adventurers  were  making  their  way 
slowly  towards  the  Watergate,  they  struck  upon  a  hidden 
obstruction  in  the  river  and  the  deeply  laden  vessel  sprang 
a  leak.  In  a  few  minutes  those  inside  were  sitting  up  to 
their  knees  in  water — a  circumstance  which  scarcely  im¬ 
proved  their  already  sufficiently  dismal  condition.  The  boat¬ 
men  vigorously  plied  the  pumps  to  save  the  vessel  from 
sinking  outright ;  a  party  of  Italian  soldiers  soon  arrived  on 
the  shore,  and  in  the  course  of  a  couple  of  hours  they  had 
laboriously  dragged  the  concealed  Hollanders  into  the  inner 


10  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXI. 

harbour  and  made  their  vessel  fast,  close  to  the  guard-house 
of  the  castle. 

And  now  a  crowd  of  all  sorts  came  on  board.  The 
winter  nights  had  been  long  and  fearfully  cold,  and  there 
was  almost  a  dearth  of  fuel  both  in  town  and  fortress.  A 
gang  of  labourers  set  to  work  discharging  the  turf  from  the 
vessel  with  such  rapidity  that  the  departing  daylight  began 
to  shine  in  upon  the  prisoners  much  sooner  than  they  wished. 
Moreover,  the  thorough  wetting,  to  which  after  all  their  other 
inconveniences  they  had  just  been  exposed  in  their  narrow 
escape  from  foundering,  had  set  the  whole  party  sneezing  and 
coughing.  Never  was  a  catarrh  so  sudden,  so  universal,  or  so 
ill-timed.  Lieutenant  Held,  unable  to  control  the  violence  of 
his  cough,  drew  his  dagger  and  eagerly  implored  his  next 
neighbour  to  stab  him  to  the  heart,  lest  his  infirmity  should 
.  lead  to  the  discovery  of  the  whole  party.  But  the  calm  and 
wary  skipper  who  stood  on  the  deck  instantly  commanded  his 
companion  to  work  at  the  pump  with  as  much  clatter  as 
possible,  assuring  the  persons  present  that  the  hold  was  nearly 
full  of  water.  By  this  means  the  noise  of  the  coughing  was 
effectually  drowned.  Most  thoroughly  did  the  bold  boatman 
deserve  the  title  of  dare-devil,  bestowed  by  his  more  faint¬ 
hearted  uncle.  Calmly  looking  death  in  the  face,  he  stood 
there  quite  at  his  ease,  exchanging  jokes  with  his  old 
acquaintances,  chaffering  with  the  eager  purchasers  of  peat, 
shouting  most  noisy  and  superfluous  orders  to  the  one  man 
who  composed  his  crew,  doing  his  utmost,  in  short,  to  get  rid 
of  his  customers  and  to  keep  enough  of  the  turf  on  board  to 
conceal  the  conspirators.6 

At  last,  when  the  case  seemed  almost  desperate,  he  loudly 
declared  that  sufficient  had  been  unladen  for  that  evening  and 
that  it  was  too  dark  and  he*  too  tired  for  further  work.  So, 
giving  a  handful  of  stivers  among  the  workmen,  he  bade  them 
go  ashore  at  once  and  have  some  beer  and  come  next  morning 
for  the  rest  of  the  cargo.  Fortunately,  they  accepted  his 
hospitable  proposition  and  took  their  departure.  Only  the 

6  Reyd,  ubi  sup. 


1590. 


11 


THE  ADVENTURERS  PROCEED  TO  ACTION. 


servant  of  tlie  captain  of  tlie  guard  lingered  behind,  com 
plaining  that  the  tnrf  was  not  as  good  as  usual  and  that  his 

master  would  never  be  satisfied  with  it. 

u  Ah  \”  returned  the  cool  skipper,  u  the  best  part  of  the  cargo 
is  underneath.  This  is  expressly  reserved  for  the  captain.  He 

is  sure  to  get  enough  of  it  to-morrow 7 

Thus  admonished,  the  servant  departed  and  the  boatman 
was  left  to  himself.  His  companion  had  gone  on  shore  with 
secret  orders  to  make  the  best  of  his  way  to  Prince  Maurice, 
to  inform  him  of  the  arrival  of  the  ship  within  the  fortress, 
and  of  the  important  fact  which  they  had  just  learned,  that 
Governor  Lanzavecchia,  who  had  heaid  rumours  of  some 
projected  enterprise  and  who  suspected  that  the  object  aimed 
at  was  Gertruydenberg,  had  suddenly  taken  his  departure 
for  that  city,  leaving  as  his  lieutenant  his  nephew  Paolo, 
a  raw  lad  quite  incompetent  to  provide  for  the  safety  of 

Breda.8 

A  little  before  midnight,  Captain  Heraugiere  made  a  brief 
address  to  his  comrades  in  the  vessel,  telling  them  that  the 
hour  for  carrying  out  their  undertaking  had  at  length  arrived. 
Retreat  was  impossible,  defeat  was  certain  death,  only  in 
complete  victory  lay  their  own  safety  and  a  great  advantage 
for  the  commonwealth.  It  was  an  honor  to  them  to  be 
selected  for  such  an  enterprise.  To  show  cowardice  now 
would  be  an  eternal  shame  for  them,  and  he  would  be  the 
man  to  strike  dead  with  his  own  hand  any  traitor  or  poltioon. 
But  if,  as  he  doubted  not,  every  one  was  prepared  to  do  his 
duty,  their  success  was  assured,  and  he  was  himself  ready  to 
take  the  lead  in  confronting  every  danger. 

He  then  divided  the  little  band  into  two  companies,  one 
under  himself  to  attack  the  main  guard-house,  the  other 
under  Fervet  to  seize  the  arsenal  of  the  fortress. 

Noiselessly  they  stole  out  of  the  ship  where  they  had  so 
long  been  confined,  and  stood  at  last  on  the  ground  within 


1  Reyd.  This  answer,  which  is  his¬ 
torical,  is  as  good  a  specimen  of  ready 
wit  in  an  emergency  as  is  often  met 


with  in  real  life. 

8  Bentivoglio,  Bor,  Meteren,  Reyd, 
ubi  sup . 


I 


12 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXI. 


the  precincts  of  the  castle.  Heraugiere  marched  straight  to 
the  guard-house. 

“  Who  goes  there  ?”  cried  a  sentinel,  hearing  some  move¬ 
ment  in  the  darkness. 

“  A  friend,”  replied  the  captain,  seizing  him  by  the  throat, 
and  commanding  him,  if  he  valued  his  life,  to  keep  silence 
except  when  addressed  and  then  to  speak  in  a  whisper. 

“  How  many  are  there  in  the  garrison  ?”  muttered 
Heraugiere. 

“  Three  hundred  and  fifty,”  whispered  the  sentinel. 

u  How  many  ?”  eagerly  demanded  the  nearest  followers, 
not  hearing  the  reply. 

“He  says  there  are  but  fifty  of  them,”  said  Heraugierq, 
prudently  suppressing  the  three  hundred,  in  order  to  eii- 
courage  his  comrades.  * 

Quietly  as  they  had  made  their  approach,  there  was  never¬ 
theless  a  stir  in  the  guard-house.  The  captain  of  the  watch 
sprang  into  the  courtyard. 

“Who  goes  there  ?”  he  demanded  in  his  turn. 

“A  friend,”  again  replied  Heraugiere,  striking  him  dead 
with  a  single  blow  as  he  spoke. 

Others  emerged  with  torches.  Heraugiere  was  slightly 
wounded,  but  succeeded,  after  a  brief  struggle,  in  killing  a 
second  assailant.  His  followers  set  upon  the  watch  who 
retreated  into  the  guard-house.  Heraugiere  commanded  his 
men  to  fire  through  the  doors  and  windows,  and  in  a  few 
minutes  every  one  of  the  enemy  lay  dead. 

It  was  not  a  moment  for  making  prisoners  or  speaking  of 
quarter.  Meantime  Fervet  and  his  band  had  not  been  idle. 
The  magazine-house  of  the  castle  was  seized,  its  defenders 
slain.  Young  Lanzavecchia  made  a  sally  from  the  palace, 
was  wounded  and  driven  back  together  with  a  few  of  his 
adherents. 

The  rest  of  the  garrison  fled  helter-skelter  into  the  town. 
Never  had  the  musketeers  of  Italy — for  they  all  belonged  to 
Spinola’s  famous  Sicilian  Legion — behaved  so  badly.9  They 

9  “  Non  fece  mai  la  soldatesca  Italiana  piu  indegna  attione  di  questa,” 
says  Cardinal  Bentivoglio,  loc.  cit. 


1590. 


SUCCESS  OF  THE  PROJECT. 


13 


did  not  even  take  the  precaution  to  destroy  the  bridge  between 
the  castle  and  the  town  as  they  fled  panic-stricken  before 
seventy  Hollanders.  Instead  of  encouraging  the  burghers  to 
their  support  they  spread  dismay,  as  they  ran,  through  every 

street. 

Young  Lanzavecchia,  penned  into  a  corner  of  the  castle, 
began  to  parley  ;  hoping  for  a  rally  before  a  surrender  should 
be  necessary.  In  the  midst  of  the  negotiation  and  a  couple 
of  hours  before  dawn,  Hohenlo,  duly  apprised  by  the  boatman, 
arrived  with  the  vanguard  of  Maurice’s  troops  before  the 
field-gate  of  the  fort.  A  vain  attempt  was  made  to  force  this 
portal  open,  hut  the  winter’s  ice  had  fixed  it  fast.  Hohenlo 
was  obliged  to  hatter  down  the  palisade  near  the  water-gate 
and  enter  by  the  same  road  through  which  the  fatal  turf-boat 

had  passed. 

Soon  after  he  had  marched  into  the  town  at  the  head 
of  a  strong  detachment,  Prince  Maurice  himself  arrived  in 
great  haste,  attended  by  Philip  Nassau,  the  Admiral  Justinus 
Nassau,  Count  Solms,  Peter  van  der  Does,  and  Sii  Fiancis 
Yere,  and  followed  by  another  body  of  picked  tioops  ,  the 
musicians  playing  merrily  that  national  air,  then  as  now  so 
dear  to  Netherlanders — 

“  Wilhelmus  van  Nassouwen 
Ben  ick  van  Duytsem  bloed.” 

The  fight  was  over.  Some  forty  of  the  garrison  had  been 
killed,  hut  not  a  man  of  the  attacking  party.  The  burgo¬ 
master  sent  a  trumpet  to  the  prince  asking  permission  to  come 
to  the  castle  to  arrange  a  capitulation  ;  and  before  sunrise,  the 
city  and  fortress  of  Breda  had  surrendered  to  the  authority 
of  the  States-General  and  of  his  Excellency.10 

The  terms  were  moderate.  The  plundering  was  commuted 


10  Bor,  Bentivoglio,  Reyd,  Meteren, 
ubi  sup.  Count  William  Lewis  in  a 
letter  to  his  father,  dated  1  March, 
0.  S.  1590,  in  giving  a  very  brief 
account  of  this  enterprise,  speaks  of 
three  turf  vessels  as  having  been  em¬ 
ployed  ;  “  in  drie  torff  schuiten  unter 
dem  holtz  verborgen  80  soldaten,” 


but  this  statement  is  so  much  at  vari¬ 
ance  with  every  other  account,  and 
especially  with  the  elaborate  narrative 
of  Eberliard  van  Reyd,  secretary  to 
Count  William  Lewis,  that  I  cannot 
doubt  the  Count  had  at  first  been 
misinformed.  Groen  v.  Prinsterar 
Archives,  &c.  II.  serie  i.  127. 


14 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXI. 


for  the  payment  of  two  months’  wages  to  every  soldier 
engaged  in  the  affair.  Burghers  who  might  prefer  to  leave 
the  city  were  allowed  to  do  so  with  protection  to  life  and 
property.  Those  who  were  willing  to  remain  loyal  citizens 
were  not  to  he  molested,  in  their  consciences  or  their 
households,  in  regard  to  religion.  The  public  exercise  of 
Catholic  rites  was  however  suspended  until  the  States-General 
should  make  some  universal  provision  on  this  subject. 

Subsequently,  it  must  be  allowed,  the  bargain  of  commuta¬ 
tion  proved  a  bad  one  for  the  Burghers.  Seventy  men  had 
in  reality  done  the  whole  work,  but  so  many  soldiers,  belong¬ 
ing  to  the  detachments  who  marched  in  after  the  fortress  had 
been  taken,  came  forward  to  claim  their  months’  wages  as  to 
bring  the  whole  amount  required  above  one  hundred  thousand 
florins.  The  Spaniards  accordingly  reproached  Prince 
Maurice  with  having  fined  his  own  patrimonial  city  more 
heavily  than  Alexander  Farnese  had  mulcted  Antwerp,  which 
had  been  made  to  pay  but  four  hundred  thousand  florins,  a 
far  less  sum  in  proportion  to  the  wealth  and  importance 
of  the  place. 

Already  the  Prince  of  Parma,  in  the  taking  of  Breda,  saw 
verified  his  predictions  of  the  disasters  about  to  fall  on  the 
Spanish  interests  in  the  Netherlands,  by  reason  of  Philip’s 
obstinate  determination  to  concentrate  all  his  energies  on 
the  invasion  of  France.  Alexander  had  been  unable,  in  the 
midst  of  preparations  for  his  French  campaign,  to  arrest  this 
sudden  capture,  but  his  Italian  blood  was  on  fire  at  the 
ignominy  which-  had  come  upon  the  soldiership  of  his  country¬ 
men.  Five  companies  of  foot  and  one  of  horse — picked 
troops  of  Spain  and  Italy — had  surrendered  a  wealthy,  popu¬ 
lous  town  and  a  well-fortified  castle  to  a  mud-scow,  and  had 
fled  shrieking  in  dismay  from  the  onset  of  seventy  frost¬ 
bitten  Hollanders. 

It  was  too  late  to  save  the  town,  but  he  could  punish,  as  it 
deserved,  the  pusillanimity  of  the  garrison. 

Three  captains — one  of  them  rejoicing  in  the  martial  name 
of  Cesar  Guerra — were  publicly  beheaded  in  Brussels.  A 


1590.  BREDA  IN  THE  HANDS  OF  THE  NETHERLANDERS.  15 

fourth^  Ventimiglia,  was  degraded  but  allowed  to  escape  with 
life,  on  account  of  his  near  relationship  to  the  Duke  of 
Terranova,  while  Governor  Lanzavecchia  was  obliged  to 
resign  the  command  of  Gertruydenberg.  The  great  com¬ 
mander  knew  better  than  to  encourage  the  yielding  up  of 
cities  and  fortresses  by  a  mistaken  lenity  to  their  unlucky 
defenders.11 

Prince  Maurice  sent  off  letters  the  same  night  announcing 
his  success  to  the  States-General.  Hohenlo  wrote  pithily 
to  Olden-Barneveld — “The  castle  and  town  of  Breda  are  ours, 
without  a  single  man  dead  on  our  side.  The  garrison  made 
no  resistance  but  ran  distracted  out  of  the  town/'12 

The  church  bells  rang  and  bonfires  blazed  and  cannon 
thundered  in  every  city  in  the  United  Provinces  to  comme¬ 
morate  this  auspicious  event.  Olden-Barneveld,  too,  whose 
part  in  arranging  the  scheme  was  known  to  have  been  so 
valuable,  received  from  the  States-General  a  magnificent 
gilded  vase  with  sculptured  representations  of  the  various 
scenes  in  the  drama,13  and  it  is  probable  that  not  more 
unmingled  satisfaction  had  been  caused  by  any  one  event  of 
the  war  than  by  this  surprise  of  Breda. 

The  capture  of  a  single  town,  not  of  first-rate  im¬ 
portance  either,  would  hardly  seem  to  merit  so  minute  a 
description  as  has  been  given  in  the  preceding  pages. 
But  the  event,  with  all  its  details,  has  been  preserved  with 
singular  vividness  in  Netherland  story.  As  an  example  of 
daring,  patience,  and  complete  success,  it  has  served  to 
encourage  the  bold  spirits  of  every  generation  and  will 
always  inspire  emulation  in  patriotic  hearts  of  every  age 
and  clime,  while,  as  the  first  of  a  series  of  audacious  enter¬ 
prises  by  which  Dutch  victories  were  to  take  the  place  of  a 
long  procession  of  Spanish  triumphs  on  the  blood-stained  soil 
of  the  provinces,  it  merits,  from  its  chronological  position,  a 
more  than  ordinary  attention. 

In  the  course  of  the  summer  Prince  Maurice,  carrying  out 

11  The  story  is  briefly  told  by  Parma  in  his  correspondence  with  the  king, 
14  March,  1590.  Archives  of  Simancas  MS.  12  Bor,  ubi  sup.  13  Ibid. 


20  the  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXI. 

into  practice  the  lessons  which  he  had  so  steadily  been 
pondering,  reduced  the  towns  and  strong  places  of  Heyl, 
Flemert,  Elshout,  Crevecoeur,  Hayden,  Steenberg,  Kosendaal, 
and  Osterhout.14  But  his  time,  during  the  remainder  of  the 
year  1590,  was  occupied  with  preparations  for  a  campaign  on 
an  extended  scale  and  with  certain  foreign  negotiations  to 
which  it  will  soon  be  necessary  to  direct  the  reader’s  atten¬ 
tion. 

14  Meteren,  xvi.  294. 


/ 


1590. 


THE  STRUGGLE  OF  THE  UNITED  PROVINCES. 


17 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


Struggle  of  tlie  United  Provinces  against  Pliilip  of  Spain  —  Progress  of  the 
Republic  —  Influence  of  Geographical  position  on  the  fate  ot  the  Nether¬ 
lands  —  Contrast  offered  by  America  —  Miserable  state  of  the  so-called 
“  obedient”  provinces  —  Prosperity  of  the  Commonwealth  —  Its  internal 
government  —  Tendency  to  provincialism  —  Quibbles  of  the  English  Mem¬ 
bers  of  the  Council,  Wilkes  and  Bodley  —  Exclusion  of  Olden-Barneveld 
from  the  State  Council  —  Proposals  of  Pliilip  for  mediation  with  the  United 
Provinces  —  The  Provinces  resolutely  decline  all  proffers  of  inter\  ention. 

The  United  Provinces  had  now  been  engaged  in  unbroken 
civil  war  for  a  quarter  of  a  century.  It  is,  however,  inaccurate 
to  designate  this  great  struggle  with  tyranny  as  a  civil  war. 
It  was  a  war  for  independence,  maintained  by  almost  the 
whole  population  of  the  United  Provinces  against  a  foreigner, 
a  despot,  alien  to  their  blood,  ignorant  of  their  language,  a 
hater  of  their  race,  a  scorner  of  their  religion,  a  trampler 
upon  their  liberties,  their  laws,  and  institutions— a  man  who 
had  publicly  declared  that  he  would  rather  the  whole  nation 
were  exterminated  than  permitted  to  escape  from  subjection 
to  the  Church  of  Rome.  Liberty  of  speech,  liberty  of  the 
press,  liberty  of  thought  on  political,  religious,  and  social 
questions  existed  within  those  Dutch  pastures  and  Frisian 
swamps  to  a  far  greater  degree  than  in  any  other  part  of  the 
world  at  that  day ;  than  in  very  many  regions  of  Christen¬ 
dom  in  our  own  time.  Personal  slavery  was  unknown.  In  a 
large  portion  of  their  territory  it  had  never  existed.  The  free 
Frisians,  nearest  blood-relations  of,  in  this  respect,  the  less 
favoured  Anglo-Saxons,  had  never  bowed  the  knee  to  the 
feudal  system,  nor  worn  nor  caused  to  be  worn  the  collar  of 
the  serf.  In  the  battles  for  human  liberty  no  nation  has 
stood  with  cleaner  hands  before  the  great  tribunal,  nor  offered 
more  spotless  examples  of  patriotism  to  be  emulated,  in  all 
succeeding  ages,  than  the  Netherlander s  in  their  gigantic 

vol.  hi. — C 


> 


|Q  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXII. 

struggle  with  Philip  of  Spain.  It  was  not  a  class  stiuggling 
for  their  own  privileges,  hut  trampling  on  their  fellow-men  in 
a  lower  scale  of  humanity.  Kings  and  aristocrats  sneered  at 
the  vulgar  republic  where  Hans  Miller,  Hans  Bakci,  and 
Hans  Brewer  enjoyed  political  rights  and  prated  of  a  sove¬ 
reignty  other  than  that  of  long-descended  races  and  of 
anointed  heads.1  Yet  the  pikemen  of  Spain  and  the  splendid 
cavalry  and  musketeers  of  Italy  and  Burgundy,  who  were  now 
beginning  to  show  their  hacks  both  behind  entrenchments  and 
in  the  open  field  to  their  republican  foes,  could  not  deny  the 
valour  with  which  the  battles  of  liberty  weie  louglit ,  while 
Elizabeth  of  England,  maintainer,  if  such  ever  were,  of  here¬ 
ditary  sovereignty  and  hater  of  popular  fieedom,  acknowledged 
that  for  wisdom  in  council,  dignity  and  adroitness  in  diplo¬ 
matic  debate,,  there  were  none  to  surpass  the  plain  burgher 

statesmen  of  the  new  republic. 

And  at  least  these  Netherlander  were  consistent  with 
themselves.  They  had  come  to  disbelieve  in  the  mystery  of 
kingcraft,  in  the  divine  speciality  of  a  few  tiansitory  moitals 
to  direct  the  world* s  events  and  to  dictate  laws  to  thcii 
fellow-creatures.  What  they  achieved  was  for  the  common 
good  of  all.  They  chose  to  live  in  an  atmosphere  of  blood 
and  fire  for  generation  after  generation  rather  than  flinch 
from  their  struggle  with  *  despotism,  for  they  knew  that, 
cruel  as  the  sea,  it  would  swallow  them  all  at  last  in  one 
common  destruction  if  they  faltered  or  paused.  They  fought 
for  the  liberty  of  all.  And.it  is  for  this  reason  that  the  . 
history  of  this  great  conflict  deserved  to  be  deeply  pondered 
by  those  who  have  the  instinct  of  human  freedom.  Had  the 
Hollanders  basely  sunk  before  the  power  of  Spain,  the  proud 
history  of  England,  France,  and  Germany  would  have  been 
written  in  far  different  terms.  The  blood  and  tears  which 
the  Netherlanders  caused  to  flow  in  their  own  stormy  days 
have  turned  to  blessings  for  remotest  climes  and  ages.  A 
pusillanimous  peace,  always  possible  at  any  period  of  theii 

1  Bor,  III.  205.  Compare  Fruin,  Tien  Jaren  nit  den  Tagtigjarigen  Oorlog. 
p.  27.  A  work  of  remarkable  research  and  power. 


1590.  PROGRESS  OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  19 

war,  would  have  been  hailed  with  rapture  by  contemporary 
statesmen,  whose  names  have  vanished  from  the  world’s 
memory  ;  but  would  have  sown  with  curses  and  misery  the 
soil  of  Europe  for  succeeding  ages.  The  territory  of  the 
Netherlands  is  narrow  and  meagre.  It  is  but  a  slender 
kingdom  now  among  the  powers  of  the  earth.  The  political 
grandeur  of  nations  is  determined  by  physical  causes  almost 
as  much  as  by  moral  ones.  Had  the  cataclysm  which 
separated  the  fortunate  British  islands  from  the  mainland 
happened  to  occur,  instead,  at  a  neighbouring  point  of  the 
earth’s  crust ;  had  the  Belgian,  Dutch,  German  and  Danish 
Netherland  floated  off  as  one  island  into  the  sea,  while  that 
famous  channel  between  two  great  rival  nations  remained 
dry  land,  there  would  have  been  a  different  history  of  the 
world. 

But  in  the  16th  century  the  history  of  one  country  Was 
not  an  isolated  chapter  of  personages  and  events.  The 
history  of  the  Netherlands  is  the  history  of  liberty.  It  was 
now  combined  with  the  English,  now  with  French,  now 
with  German  struggles  for  political  and  religious  freedom, 
but  it  is  impossible  to  separate  it  from  the  one  great  complex 
which  makes  up  the  last  half  of  the  sixteenth  and  the  first 
half  of  the  seventeenth  centuries. 

At  that  day  the  Netherland  republic  was  already  becoming 
a  power  of  importance  in  the  political  family  of  Christendom. 
If,  in  spite  of  her  geographical  disadvantages,  she  achieved 
so  much,  how  much  vaster  might  her  power  have  grown, 
how  much  stronger  through  her  example  might  popular 
institutions  throughout  the  world  have  become,  and  how 
much  more  pacific  the  relations  of  European  tribes,  had 
nature  been  less  niggard  in  her  gifts  to  the  young  common¬ 
wealth.  On  the  sea  she  was  strong,  for  the  ocean  is  the  best 
of  frontiers  ;  but  on  land  her  natural  boundaries  faded  vaguely 
away,  without  strong  physical  demarcations  and  with  no 
sharply  defined  limits  of  tongue,  history  or  race.  Accident 
or  human  caprice  seemed  to  have  divided  German  Highland 
from  German  Netherland  ;  Belgic  Gaul  from  the  rest  of  the 


2q  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXII. 

Gallic  realm.  And  even  from  tire  slender  body,  which  an 
arbitrary  destiny  had  set  off  for  centuries  into  a  separate 
organism,  tyranny  and  religious  bigotry  had  just  hewn 
another  portion  away.  But  the  commonwealth  was  already 
too  highly  vitalized  to  permit  peaceful  dismemberment.  .  n  y 
the  low  organisms  can  live  m  all  their  parts  after  violent 
separations.  The  trunk  remained,  bleeding  but  alive  and 
vigorous,  while  the  amputated  portion  lay  for  centuries  in 

fossilized  impotence.  . 

Never  more  plainly  than  in  the  history  of  this  common¬ 
wealth  was  the  geographical  law  manifested  by  which  the 
fate  of  nations  is  so  deeply  influenced.  Courage  enterprise 
amounting  almost  to  audacity,  and  a  determined  will  con¬ 
fronted  for  a  long  lapse  of  time  the  inexorable,  and  permitted 
a  great  empire  to  germinate  out  of  a  few  sand-banks  held  m 
defiance  of  the  ocean,  and  protected  from  human  encroach¬ 
ments  on  the  interior  only  by  the  artificial  barrier  of  custom- 

house  and  fort.  #  ,  . 

Thus  foredoomed  at  birth,  it  must  increase  our  admi¬ 
ration  of  human  energy  and  of  the  sustaining  influence  o 
municipal  liberty  that  the  republic,  even  if  transitory 
should  yet  have  girdled  the  earth  with  its  possessions  and 
held  for  a  considerable  period  so  vast  a  portion  of  the  world 

What  a  lesson  to  our  transatlantic  commonwealth,  whom 
bountiful  nature  had  blessed  at  her  birth  beyond  all  the 
nations  of  history  and  seemed  to  speed  upon  an  unlimited 
career  of  freedom  and  peaceful  prosperity,  should  she  be 
capable  at  the  first  alarm  on  her  track  to  throw  away  her 
inestimable  advantages  !  If  all  history  is  not  a  mockery  and 
a  fable,  she  may  be  sure  that  the  nation  which  deliberately 
carves  itself  in  pieces  and  substitutes  artificial  boundaries  for 
the  natural  and  historic  ones,  condemns  itself  either  to  ex¬ 
tinction  or  to  the  lower  life  of  political  insignificance  .  and 
petty  warfare,  with  the  certain  loss  of  liberty  and  national 
independence  at  last.  Better  a  terrible  stiuggle,  better  t  e 
sacrifice  of  prosperity  and  happiness  for  years,  than  the 


1590.  STATE  OF  THE  “OBEDIENT”  PROVINCES.  21 

eternal  setting  of  that  great  popular  hope,  the  United 
American  Republic.1 

I  speak  in  this  digression  only  of  the  relations  of  physical 
nature  to  liberty  and  nationality,  making  no  allusion  to  the 
equally  stringent  moral  laws  which  no  people  can  violate  and 

yet  remain  in  health  and  vigour. 

Despite  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  what  is  commonly  termed 
civil  war,  the  United  Netherlands  were  prosperous  and  full  of 
life.  It  was  in  the  provinces  which  had  seceded  from  the 
union  of  Utrecht  that  there  was  silence  as  of  the  grave,  des¬ 
titution,  slavery,  abject  submission  to  a  foreign  foe.  The 
leaders  in  the  movement  which  had  brought  about  the  scission 
of  1579— commonly  called  the  ‘  Reconciliation’— enjoyed 
military  and  civil  posts  under  a  foreign  tyrant,  but  were 
poorly  rewarded  for  subserviency  in  fighting  against  their 
own  brethren  by  contumely  on  the  part  of  their  masteis. 
As  for  the  mass  of  the  people  it  would  be  difficult  to  find 
a  desolation  more  complete  than  that  recorded  of  the 
“obedient”  provinces.  Even  as  six  years  before,  wolves 
littered  their  whelps  in  deserted  farm-houses,  cane-brake  and 
thicket  usurped  the  place  of  cornfield  and  orchard,  robbeis 
swarmed  on  the  highways  once  thronged  by  a  most  thriving 
population,  nobles  begged  their  bread  in  the  streets  of  cities 
whose  merchants  once  entertained  emperors  and  whose 
wealth  and  traffic  were  the  wonder  of  the  world,  while  the 
Spanish  viceroy  formally  permitted  the  land  in  the  agiicul- 
tural  districts  to  be  occupied  and  farmed  by  the  fiist  comei 
for  his  own  benefit,  until  the  vanished  proprietors  of  the  soil 

should  make  their  re-appearance.2 

u  Administered  without  justice  or  policy/’  said  a  Nether¬ 
lander*  who  was  intensely  loyal  to  the  king  and  a  most 
uncompromising  Catholic,  u  eaten  up  and  abandoned  for  that 
purpose  to  the  arbitrary  will  of  foreigners  who  suck  the  sub¬ 
stance  and  marrow  of  the  land  without  benefit  to  the  king, 
gnaw  the  obedient  cities  to  the  bones,  and  plunder  the  open 
defenceless  country  at  their  pleasure,  it  may  be  imagined 
1  Written  in  1863.  Meteren,  xvi.  297. 


22 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXII. 


how  much  satisfaction  these  provinces  take  in  their  condition. 
Commerce  and  trade  have  ceased  in  a  country  which  traffic 
alone  has  peopled,  for  without  it  no  human  habitation  could 

he  more  miserable  and  poor  than  our  land. 

Nothing  could  be  more  gloomy  than  the  evils  thus  de¬ 
scribed  by  the  Netherland  statesman  and  soldier,  except  the 
remedy  which  he  suggested.  The  obedient  provinces,  thus 
scourged  and  blasted  for  their  obedience,  were  not  advised  to 
improve  their  condition  by  joining  hands  with  their  sister 
States,  who  had  just  constituted  themselves  by  their  noble 
resistance  to  royal  and  ecclesiastical  tyranny  into  a  free  and 
powerful  commonwealth.  On  the  contrary,  two  great  sources 
of  regeneration  and  prosperity  were  indicated,  but  very 
different  ones  from  those  in  which  the  republic  had  sought 
and  found  her  strength.  In  the  first  place,  it  was  suggested 
as  indispensable  that  the  obedient  provinces  should  have 
more  Jesuits  and  more  Friars.  The  mendicant  orders  should 
be  summoned  to  renewed  exertions,  and  the  king  should  be 
requested  to  send  seminary  priests  to  every  village  in  numbers 
proportionate  to  the  population,  who  should  go  about  from 
house  to  house,  counting  the  children,  and  seeing  that  they 
learned  their  catechism  if  their  parents  did  not  teach  them, 


3  Discours  du  Seigneur  de  Cham¬ 
pa  o-ny  sur  les  affaires  des  Pays  Bas, 
21  Dec.  1589.  Bibl.  de  Bourgogne, 
MS  No.  12.962. 


termino  que  con  todos  usa,  los  pocos 
consejos  el  desauctorisar  los  que  el 
Rey  a  puesto,  y  que  solo  lo  emprende 
y  nianeje  todo  con  sus  liecli uras 
para  aprovecliarlas,  y  la  increyble 
disorden  no  solo  en  lo  politico  mas 
en  la  gente  de  guerra,  haze  que 
no  solo  todos  los  de  los  estados 
mas  aun  que  quantos  con  el  Iran  de 
negociar  pierdan  toda  opinion  no  solo 
de  au  discretion  o  prudencia  mas  del 

teniendo  credito  con  este  hornbre 


(Farnese)  royendose  quantas  villas 
ternan  a  Tobediencia  del  Rey  hasta  los 
liuessos  y  el  plat  pays  sin  defensa  con¬ 
tra  el  enemigo  que  come  y  roba  a  todas 
partas  como  quiere— se  puede  coligar 
desto  la  satisfaccion  que  del  tendran  to¬ 
dos  estados  que  indifferentemente  assi 
prelados,  nobles  como  villas  y  pueblos 
no  solo  murmuran  del  mas  lo  dizen 
y  a  vozes,”  etc.  etc.  etc.  “  demas  que 
clestos  los  rebeldes  s’endurescen  dizi- 
endo  que  no  se  deven  fiar  de  nuestras 
promesas,  representando  la  miseria  y 
calamidad  en  que  viven  los  rbduzidos 
por  la  violencia  y  colieclios  de  nuestra 
propria  gente,  govern  an  dose  todo  sin 
policia,  justicia,  verdad  ni  consejo  por 


1590. 


REGENERATIVE  PROPOSALS. 


23 


and,  even  in  case  they  did,  examining  whether  it  was  done 
thoroughly  and  without  deception. 

In  the  second  place  it  was  laid  down  as  important  that  the 
bishops  should  confirm  no  one  who » had  not  been  sufficiently 
catechized.  “  And  if  the  mendicant  orders/'  said  Champagny, 
u  are  not  numerous  enough  for  these  catechizations,  the  J esuits 
might  charge  themselves  therewith,  not  more  and  not  less 
than  the  said  mendicants,  some  of  each  being  deputed  to 
each  parish.  To  this  end  it  would  be  well  if  his  Majesty 
should  obtain  from  the  Pope  a  command  to  the  Jesuits  to 
this  effect,  since  otherwise  they  might  not  he  willing  to 
comply.  It  should  also  he  ordered  that  all  J  esuits,  natives  of 
these  provinces,  should  return  hither,  instead  of  wandering 
about  in  other  regions  as  if  their  help  were  not  so  necessary 

here."4 

It  was  also  recommended  that  the  mendicant  friars  should 
turn  their  particular  attention  to  Antwerp,  and  that  one  of 
them  should  preach  in  French,  another  in  German,  another 
in  English,  every  day  at  the  opening  of  the  Exchange. 

With  these  appliances  it  was  thought  that  Antwerp  would 
revive  out  of  its  ruins  and,  despite  the  blockade  of  its 
river,  renew  its  ancient  commercial  glories.  Founded  on 
the  substantial  rocks  of  mendicancy  and  Jesuitism,  it  might 
again  triumph  over  its  rapidly  rising  rival,  the  heretic  Amster¬ 
dam,  which  had  no  better  basis  for  its  grandeur  than  religious 
and  political  liberty,  and  uncontrolled  access  to  the  ocean. 

Such  were  the  aspirations  of  a  distinguished  and  loyal 


4  “  Por  lo  qual  primero  encarguense 
de  nuevo  todas  las  ordenes  mendi¬ 
cantes  en  las  quales  santissamente  cl 
Rey  nr0  Seiior  introduze  seminarios  a 
que  como  siempre  en  estos  estados  lian 
sido  el  socorro  de  los  curas  que  a  cada 
parocliia  acuden  delios  a  catecliisar 
conforme  al  numero  de  las  casas  que 
debaxo  de  las  parocliias  resultan,  y  de 
casa  en  casa  vayan,  scaviendo  que 
ninos  ay,  y  que  entienden  en  cateclii- 
sarlos  quando  los  mismos  padres  no  lo 
liagan,  y  aunque  esso  sea  que  lo  hagan 
no  sea  sin  su  examinacion  porque  no 
aya  engano . Quando  tam- 


bien  no  bastan  para  estas  catecisationes 
las  ordenes  mendicantes,  pueden  se 
encargar  deste  los  Jesuitas  ne  mas  ne 
menos  con  diclios  mendicantes,  depu- 
tando  algunos  delios  juntamente,  con 
esotros  por  las  parocliias.  Para  esto 
mesmo  seria  bien  su  Magd  impetrasse 
del  papa  mandado  a  los  Jesuitas 
porque  de  otra  manera  no  querran 
submitirse  a  ello,  y  para  que  buelvan 
a  estos  estados  todos  los  J esuitas  natu- 
rales  del  que  distraydos  en  otras 
pro vinci  as,  dexan  esta  como  si  aqui 
no  fuesse  tanto  menester  su  asis- 
tencia.” . — Ibid. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXII. 


24 


Netherlander  for  the  regeneration  of  his  country.  Such 
were  his  opinions  as  to  the  true  sources  of  the  wealth  and 
greatness  of  nations.  Can  we  wonder  that  the  country  fell 
to  decay,  or  that  this  experienced  statesman  and  brave  soldier 
should  himself,  after  not  many  years,  seek  to  hide  his  dis¬ 
honoured  head  under  the  cowl  of  a  monk  P 

The  coast  of  the  obedient  provinces  was  thoroughly  block¬ 
aded.  The  United  Provinces  commanded  the  sea,  their 
cruisers,  large  and  small,  keeping  diligent  watch  off  every 
port  and  estuary  of  the  Flemish  coast,  so  that  not  a  herring- 
boat  could  enter  without  their  permission.  Antwerp,  when 
it  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Spaniard,  sank  for  ever  from  its 
proud  position.  The  city  which  Venetians  but  lately  had 
confessed  with  a  sigh  to  be  superior  in  commercial  grandeur 
to  their  own  magnificent  capital,  had  ceased  to  be  a  seaport. 
Shut  in  from  the  ocean  by  Flushing — firmly  held  by  an 
English  garrison  as  one  of  the  cautionary  towns  for  the 
Queen’s  loan  —  her  world- wide  commerce  withered  before 
men’s  eyes.  Her  population  was  dwindling  to  not  much  more 
than  half  its  former  numbers,  while  Ghent,  Bruges,  and  other 
cities  were  diminished  by  two-thirds. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  commerce  and  manufactures  of  the 
United  Republic  had  enormously  augmented.  Its  bitterest 
enemies  bore  witness  to  the  sagacity  and  success  by  which  its 
political  affairs  were  administered,  and  to  its  vast  superiority 
in  this  respect  over  the  obedient  provinces.  “  The  rebels  are 
not  ignorant  of  our  condition,”  said  Champagny,  “  they  are 
themselves  governed  with  consummate  wisdom,  and  they  mock 
at  those  who  submit  themselves  to  the  Duke  of  Parma. 
They  are  the  more  confirmed  in  their  rebellion,  when  they 
see  how  many  are  thronging  from  us  to  them,  complaining 
of  such  bad  government,  and  that  all  take  refuge  in 
flight  who  can  from  the  misery  and  famine  which  it  has 
caused  throughout  these  provinces  !”5  The  industrial  popu¬ 
lation  had  flowed  from  the  southern  provinces  into  the 


5  Discours  du  Seigneur  de  Cliam- 
pagny.  “  Esto  no  ignoran  los  Re- 


beldes  que  con  grandissima  policia 
governados  se  burlan  de  lo  que  se 


1590. 


RAPID  DEVELOPMENT  OF  INDUSTRY. 


25 


north,  in  obedience  to  an  irrosistiblo  law.  The  workers  in 
iron,  paper,  silk,  linen,  lace,  the  makers  of  Liocacle,  tapestry, 
and  satin,  as  well  as  of  all  the  coarser  fabrics,  had  fled,  from 
the  land  of  oppression  to  the  land  of  liberty.  Never  in  the 
history  of  civilisation  had  there  been  a  more  rapid  develop¬ 
ment  of  human  industry  than  in  Holland  during  these  years 
of  bloodiest  warfare.  The  towns  were  filled  to  overflowing. 
Amsterdam  multiplied  in  wealth  and  population  as  fast  as 
Antwerp  shrank.  Almost  as  much  might  be  said  of  Middel- 
burg,  Enkhuyzen,  Horn,  and  many  other  cities.  It  is  the 
epoch  to  which  the  greatest  expansion  of  municipal  archi¬ 
tecture  is  traced.  Warehouses,  palaces,  docks,  arsenals, 
fortifications,  dykes,  splendid  streets  and  suburbs,  were  con¬ 
structed  on  every  side,  and  still  there  was  not  room  for  the 
constantly  increasing  population,  large  numbeis  ol  vhich 
habitually  dwelt  in  the  shipping.  For  even  of  that  narrow 
span  of  earth  called  the  province  of  Holland,  one-third  was 
then  interior  water,  divided  into  five  considerable  lakes,  those 
of  Harlem,  Schermer,  Beemster,  Waert,  and  Purmer.  The 
sea  was  kept  out  by  a  magnificent  system  of  dykes  under  the 
daily  superintendence  of  a  board  of  officers,  called  dyke- 
graves,  while  the  rain-water,  which  might  otherwise  have 
drowned  the  soil  thus  painfully  reclaimed,  was  pumped  up 
by  windmills  and  drained  off  through  sluices  opening  and 
closing  with  the  movement  of  the  tides. 

The  province  of  Zeeland  was  one  vast  u  polder.  It  v.as 
encircled  by  an  outer  dyke  of  forty  Hutch,  equal  to  one 
hundred  and  fifty  English,  miles  in  extent,  and  traversed 
by  many  interior  barriers.  The  average  cost  of  dyke¬ 
building  was  sixty  florins  the  rod  of  twelve  feet,  or  84,000 
florins  the  Dutch  mile.  The  total  cost  of  the  Zeeland 
dykes  was  estimated  at  3,360,000  florins,  besides  the  annual 
repairs.6 

But  it  was  on  the  sea  that  the  Netherlander  were  really 


sumetten  al  D.  de  Parma  y  se  con- 
firman  mas  en  su  rebelion,  con  ver 
quantos  van  a  ellos  quexosos  de  tan 
mal  govierno,  y  quantos  pueden. 


liuyen  con  la  miseria,  liambre,  pobreza 
y  carestia  causada  generalmente  por 
esto  en  todas  partes,”  etc.,  etc.,  etc. 

6  Meteren,  xvi.  288,  289, 290. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


CnAP  XXII. 


26 


at  home,  and  they  always  felt  it  in  their  power — as  their  last 
resource  against  foreign  tyranny — to  bury  their  land  for  ever 
in  the  ocean,  and  to  seek  a  new  country  at  the  ends  of  the 
earth.  It  has  always  been  difficult  to  doom  to  political  or 
personal  slavery  a  nation  accustomed  to  maritime  pursuits. 
Familiarity  with  the  boundless  expanse  of  ocean,  and  the  habit 
of  victoriously  contending  with  the  elements  in  their  stormy 
strength,  would  seem  to  inspire  a  consciousness  in  mankind  of 
human  dignity  and  worth.  With  the  exception  of  Spain,  the 
chief  seafaring  nations  of  the  world  were  already  protestant. 
The  counter-league,  which  was  to  do  battle  so  strenuously  with 
the  Holy  Confederacy,  was  essentially  a  maritime  league. 
u  All  the  maritime  heretics  of  the  world,  since  heresy  is  best 
suited  to  navigators,  will  he  handed  together,”  said  Cham- 
pagny,  and  then  woe  to  the  Spanish  Indies,  which  England 
and  Holland  are  already  threatening.”7 

The  Netherlander s  had  been  noted  from  earliest  times  for 
a  free-spoken  and  independent  personal  demeanour.  At  this 
epoch  they  were  taking  the  lead  of  the  whole  world  in  marine 
adventure.  At  least  three  thousand  vessels  of  between  one 
hundred  and  four  hundred  tons,  besides  innumerable  doggers, 
busses,  cromstevens,  and  similar  craft  used  on  the  rivers  and 
in  fisheries,  were  to  he  found  in  the  United  Provinces,  and 
one  thousand,  it  was  estimated,  were  annually  built.8 

They  traded  to  the  Baltic  regions  for  honey,  wax,  tallow, 
lumber,  iron,  turpentine,  hemp.  They  brought  from  farthest 
Indies  and  from  America  all  the  fabrics  of  ancient  civilisation, 
all  the  newly  discovered  products  of  a  virgin  soil,  and  dis¬ 
pensed  them  among  the  less  industrious  nations  of  the  earth. 
Enterprise,  led  on  and  accompanied  by  science,  was  already 
planning  the  boldest  flights  into  the  unknown  yet  made  by 
mankind,  and  it  will  soon  he  necessary  to  direct  attention  to 
those  famous  arctic  voyages,  made  by  Hollanders  in  pursuit 
of  the  north-west  passage  to  Cathay,  in  which  as  much 
heroism,  audacity,  and  scientific  intelligence  were  displayed  as 


7  Discours  du  Seigneur  de  Cham- 
pagny.  “  Todos  los  herej  es  del  oceano 
que  lo  son  quasi  todos  sino  sola 


Espana  .  ...  j  pues  la  heresia  es  lo 
que  mas  conforme  en  estos  maritimos ” 
etc.,  etc.,  etc.  8  Meteren,  ubi  sup. 


1590  INFLUENCE  OF  FREEDOM.  27 

in  later  times  have  made  so  many  men  belonging  to  botli 
branches  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  illustrious.  A  people, 
eno-ao-ed  in  perennial  conflict  with  a  martial  and  sacerdotal 
despotism  the  most  powerful  in  the  world,  could  yet  spare 
enough  from  its  superfluous  energies  to  confront  the  dangers 
of  the  polar  oceans,  and  to  bring  back  treasures  of  science  to 

enrich  the  world.  .  .  .  , 

Such  was  the  spirit  of  freedom.  Inspired  by  its  blessed 

influence  this  vigorous  and  inventive  little  commonwealth 
triumphed  over  all  human,  all  physical  obstacles  in  its  path. 
It  organised  armies  on  new  principles  to  drive  the  most  famous 
le<nons  of  history  from  its  soil.  It  built  navies  to  help  rescue,  at 
critical  moments,  the  cause  of  England,  of  protestantism,  of 
civil  liberty,  and  even  of  French  nationality.  More  than  all, 
by  its  trade  with  its  arch-enemy,  the  republic  constantly 
multiplied  its  resources  for  destroying  his  power  and  aggran- 
dizing  its  own. 

The  war  navy  of  the  United  Provinces  was  a  regular  force 
of  one  hundred  ships— large  at  a  period  when  a  vessel  of  thir¬ 
teen  hundred  tons  was  a  monster— together  with  an  indefinite 
number  of  smaller  craft,  which  could  be  put  into  the  public 
service  on  short  notice.9  In  those  days  of  close  _  quarters  and 
lio-ht  artillery  a  merchant  ship  was  converted  into  a  cruiser 
by  a  very  simple  process..  The  navy  was  a  self-supporting 
one,  for  it  was  paid  by  the  produce  of  convoy  fees  and 
licenses  to  trade.  It  must  be  confessed  that  a  portion  of 
these  revenues  savoured  much  of  black-mail  to  be  levied  on 
friend  and  foe ;  for  the  distinctions  between  freebooter, 
privateer,  pirate,  and  legitimate  sea-robber  were  not  very 
closely  drawn  in  those  early  days  of  seafaring. 

Prince  Maurice  of  Nassau  was  lord  high  admiral,  but  lie 
was  obliged  to  listen  to  the  counsels  of  various  provincial 
boards  of  admiralty,  which  often  impeded  his  action  and 
interfered  with  his  schemes. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  inherent  vice  of  the  Nether- 
land  polity  was  already  a  tendency  to  decentralisation  and 

9  Meteren,  ubi  sup. 


28 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXII. 


provincialism.  The  civil  institutions  of  the  country,  in  their 
main  characteristics,  have  been  frequently  sketched  in  these 
pages.  At  this  period  they  had  entered  almost  completely 
into  the  forms  which  were  destined  to  endure  until  the  com¬ 
monwealth  fell  in  the  great  crash  of  the  French  Revolution. 
Their  beneficial  effects  were  more  visible  now — sustained 
and  bound  together  as  the  nation  was  by  the  sense  of  a 
common  danger,  and  by  the  consciousness  of  its  daily  deve¬ 
loping  strength — than  at  a  later  day  when  prosperity  and 
luxury  had  blunted  the  fine  instincts  of  patriotism. 

The  supreme  power,  after  the  deposition  of  Philip,  and  the 
refusal  by  France  and  by  England  to  accept  the  sovereignty 
of  the  provinces,  was  definitely  lodged  in  the  States-General. 
But  the  States-General  did  not  technically  represent  the 
people.  Its  members  were  not  elected  by  the  people.  It 
was  a  body  composed  of  delegates  from  each  provincial 
assembly,  of  which  there  were  now  five — Holland,  Zeeland, 
Friesland,  Utrecht,  and  Gelderland.  Each  provincial  assembly 
consisted  again  of  delegates,  not  from  the  inhabitants  of  the 
provinces,  but  from  the  magistracies  of  the  cities.  Those 
magistracies,  again,  were  not  elected  by  the  citizens.  They 
elected  themselves  by  renewing  their  own  vacancies,  and 
were,  in  short,  immortal  corporations.  Thus,  in  final  analysis, 
the  supreme  power  was  distributed  and  localised  among  the 
mayors  and  aldermen  of  a  large  number  of  cities,  all  inde¬ 
pendent  alike  of  the  people  below  and  of  any  central  power 
above. 

It  is  true  that  the  nobles,  as  a  class,  had  a  voice  in  the 
provincial  and  in  the  general  assembly,  both  for  themselves 
and  as  technical  representatives  of  the  smaller  towns  and 
of  the  rural  population.  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
influence  of  this  caste  had  of  late  years  very  rapidly 
diminished,  through  its  decrease  in  numbers,  and  the 
far  more  rapid  increase  in  wealth  and  power  of  the  com¬ 
mercial  and  manufacturing  classes.  Individual  nobles  were 
constantly  employed  in  the  military,  civil,  and  diplomatic 
service  of  the  republic,  but  their  body  had  ceased  to  be  a 


1590.  CHARACTER  OF  THE  REVOLUTION.  29 

• 

power.  It  had  been  the  policy  of  William  the  Silent  to 
increase  the  number  of  cities  entitled  to  send  deputies  to  the 
States  j  for  it  was  among  the  cities  that  his  resistance  to 
the  tyranny  of  Spain,  and  his  efforts  to  obtain  complete 
independence  for  his  country,  had  been  mainly  supported. 
Many  of  the  great  nobles,  as  has  been  seen  in  these  pages, 
denounced  the  liberator  and  took  sides  with  the  tyrant. 
Lamoral  Egmont  had  walked  to  the  scaffold  to  which  Philip 
had  condemned  him,  chanting  a  prayer  for  Philip’s  welfare. 
Egmont’ s  eldest  son  was  now  foremost  in  the  Spanish  army, 
doing  battle  against  his  own  country  in  behalf  of  the  tyrant 
who  had  taken  his  father’s  life.  Aremberg  and  Ligny, 
Arschot,  Chimay,  Croy,  Capres,  Montigny,  and  most  of  the 
great  patrician  families  of  the  Netherlands  fought  on  the 
royal  side. 

The  revolution  which  had  saved  the  country  from  perdition 
and  created  the  great  Netherland  republic  was  a  burgher 
revolution,  and  burgher  statesmen  now  controlled  the  State. 
The  burgher  class  of  Europe  is  not  the  one  that  has  been 
foremost  in  the  revolutionary  movements  of  history,  or  that 
has  distinguished  itself— especially  in  more  modern  times— by 
a  passionate  love  of  liberty.  It  is  always  easy  to  sneer  at  Hans 
Miller  and  Hans  Baker,  and  at  the  country  where  such 
plebeians  are  powerful.  Yet  the  burghers  played  a  prominent 
part  in  the  great  drama  which  forms  my  theme,  and  there  has 
rarely  been  seen  a  more  solid  or  powerful  type  of  their  class 
than  the  burgheV  statesman,  John  of  Olden-Barneveld,  who, 
since  the  death  of  William  the  Silent  and  the  departure  of 
Lord  Leicester,  had  mainly  guided  the  destinies  of  Holland. 
Certainly  no  soldier  nor  statesman  who  ever  measured  intel¬ 
lects  with  that  potent  personage  was  apt  to  treat  his  genius 
otherwise  than  with  profound  respect. 

But  it  is  difficult  to  form  a  logical  theory  of  government, 
except  on  the  fiction  of  divine  right  as  a  basis,  unless  the  fact 
of  popular  sovereignty,  as  expressed  by  a  majority,  be  frankly 
accepted  in  spite  of  philosophical  objections. 

In  the  Netherlands  there  was  no  king,  and  strictly  speaking 


30 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXII. 


no  people.  But  this  latter  and  fatal  defect  was  not  visible 
in  the  period  of  danger  and  of  contest.  The  native  magis¬ 
trates  of  that  age  were  singularly  pure,  upright,  and  patriotic. 
Of  this  there  is  no  question  whatever.  And  the  people 
acquiesced  cheerfully  in  their  authority,  not  claiming  a  larger 
representation  than  such  as  they  virtually  possessed  in  the 
multiple  power  exercised  over  them,  by  men  moving  daily 
among  them,  often  of  modest  fortunes  and  of  simple  lives. 
Two  generations  later,  and  in  the  wilderness  of  Massachusetts, 
the  early  American  colonists  voluntarily  placed  in  the  hands 
of  their  magistrates,  few  in  number,  unlimited  control  of  all 
the  functions  of  government,  and  there  was  hardly  an  in¬ 
stance  known  of  an  impure  exercise  of  authority.  Yet  out  of 
that  simple  kernel  grew  the  least  limited  and  most  powerful 
democracy  ever  known.* 

In  the  later  days  of  Netherland  history  a  different  result 
became  visible,  and  with  it  came  the  ruin  of  the  State.  The 
governing  class,  of  burgher  origin,  gradually  separated  itself 
from  the  rest  of  the  citizens,  withdrew  from  commercial  pur¬ 
suits,  lived  on  hereditary  fortunes  in  the  exercise  of  functions 
which  were  likewise  virtually  hereditary,  and  so  became  an 
oligarchy.  This  result,  together  with  the  physical  causes 
already  indicated,  made  the  downfall  of  the  commonwealth 
probable  whenever  it  should  be  attacked  by  an  overwhelming 
force  from  without. 

The  States-General,  however,  at  this  epoch — although  they 
had  in  a  manner  usurped  the  sovereignty,  which  in  the 
absence  of  a  feudal  lord  really  belonged  to  the  whole  people, 
and  had  silently  repossessed  themselves  of  those  executive 
functions  which  they  had  themselves  conferred  upon  the 
state  council — were  at  any  rate  without  self-seeking  am¬ 
bition.  The  Hollanders,  as  a  race,  were  not  office  seekers, 
but  were  singularly  docile  to  constituted  authority,  while  their 
regents — as  the  municipal  magistrates  were  commonly  called 

_ were  not  very  far  removed  above  the  mass  by  birth  or 

habitual  occupation.  The  republic  was  a  social  and  political 
fact,  against  which  there  was  no  violent  antagonism  either 


1590. 


THE  REPUBLICAN  RULE. 


31 


of  laws  or  manners,  and  the  people,  although  not  technically 
existing,  in  reality  was  all  in  all.  In  Netherland  story  the 
People  is  ever  the  true  hero.  It  was  an  almost  unnoticed  hut 
significant  revolution — that  by  which  the  state  council  was 
now  virtually  deprived  of  its  authority.  During  Leicester’s 
rule  it  had  been  a  most  important  college  of  administration. 
Since  his  resignation  it  had  been  entrusted  by  the  States- 
General  with  high  executive  functions,  especially  in  war 
matters.  It  was  an  assembly  of  learned  counsellors  appointed 
from  the  various  provinces  for  wisdom  and  experience,  usually 
about  eighteen  in  number,  and  sworn  in  all  things  to  he 
faithful  to  the  whole  republic.  The  allegiance  of  all  was 
rendered  to  the  nation.  Each  individual  member  was  re¬ 
quired  to  “  forswear  his  native  province  in  order  to  be  true 
to  the  generality.”  They  deliberated  in  common  for  the 
general  good,  and  were  not  hampered  by  instructions  from 
the  provincial  diets,  nor  compelled  to  refer  to  those  diets  for 
decision  when  important  questions  were  at  issue.  It  was  an 
independent  executive  committee  for  the  whole  republic.113 

But  Leicester  had  made  it  unpopular.  His  intrigues,  in 
the  name  of  democracy,  to  obtain  possession  of  sovereign 
power,  to  inflame  the  lower  classes  against  the  municipal 
magistracies,  and  to  excite  the  clergy  to  claim  a  political 
influence  to  which  they  were  not  entitled  and  which  was  most 
mischievous  in  its  effects,  had  exposed  the  state  council,  with 
which  he  had  been  in  the  habit  of  consulting,  to  suspicion. 

The  Queen  of  England,  by  virtue  of  her  treaty,  had  the 
right  to  appoint  two  of  her  subjects  to  be  members  of 


10  “  Sa  Majeste  voit  journellement 
par  experience  qu’a  cause  que  l’au- 
torite  qui  appartient  au  conseil  d’etat 
de  ces  provinces  suivant  les  articles  du 
contract  faict  entre  S.  M.  et  ces  pays  cy 
luy  est  en  plusieurs  points  du  tout 
ostee  et  quasi  en  tout  fort  raccourcie 
par  V.  S.  De  la  naist  une  telle  con¬ 
fusion  et  desordre  au  gouvernement  de 
ces  provinces  que  non  seulement  c’est 
roccasion  de  beaucoup  de  malentenduz 
et  mescontentemens,  mais  aussi  faict 
que  l’ennemi  n’est  si  vivement  re¬ 
pousse  comme  il  pourrait  estre,  et 


consequemment  met  S.  M.  et  ces  pro¬ 
vinces  en  plus  grand  trouble  et  des- 
pense  qu’aultrement  ne  requerroit  le 
maintien  de  ces  guerres  ;  eu  esgard  de 
quoi  je  suis  charge  de  par  S.  M.  de  vous 
signifier,  qu’elle  desire  de  V.  S.  quo 
quelque  pouvoir  qui  a  este  bailie  au 
conseil  d’etat  par  la  susdicte  conven¬ 
tion,  soit  aussi  pleinement  restitue  et 
establi,”  etc.,  etc.,  etc.  (Paper  sent  to 
the  States-General  by  Sir  Thomas 
Bodley,  26  April,  1590 ;  Archives  cf 
the  Hague  MS.) 


Chap.  XXII. 


22  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 

the  council.  The  governor  of  her  auxiliary  forces  was  also 
entitled  to  a  seat  there.  Since  the  malpractices  of  Leicester 
and  the  danger  to  which  the  country  had  been  subjected  m 
consequence  had  been  discovered,  it  was  impossible  that  there 
should  be  very  kindly  feeling  toward  England  in  the  public 
mind,  however  necessary  a  sincere  alliance  between  the  two 
countries  was  known  to  be  for  the  welfare  of  both. 

The  bickering  of  the  two  English  councillors,  Wilkes  and 
Bodley,  and  of  the  governor  of  the  English  contingent  with 
the  Hollanders,  was  incessant.  The  Englishmen  went  so  far 
as  to  claim  the  right  of  veto  upon  all  measures  passed  by  the 
council,  but  the  States-General  indignantly  replied  that 
the  matters  deliberated  and  decided  upon  by  that  board  were 
their  own  affairs,  not  the  state  affairs  of  England.  The  two 
members  and  the  military  officer  who  together  represented 
her  Majesty  were  entitled  to  participate  in  the  deliberations 
and  to  vote  with  their  brother  members.  For  them  to  claim 
the  right,  however,  at  will  to  annul  the  proceedings  was  an 
intolerable  assumption,  and  could  not  be  listened  to  for  a 
moment.  Certainly  it  would  have  been  strange  had  two 
Dutchmen  undertaken  to  veto  every  measure  passed  by  the 
Queen’s  council  at  Richmond  or  Windsor,  and  it  was  difficult 
to  say  on  what  article  of  the  contract  this  extraordinary 
privilege  was  claimed  by  Englishmen  at  the  Hague. 

Another  cause  of  quarrel  was  the  inability  of  the  English¬ 
men  to  understand  the  language  in  which  the  debates  of  the 
state  council  were  held. 

According  to  a  custom  not  entirely  unexampled  in  parlia¬ 
mentary  history  the  members  of  assembly  and  council  made 
use  of  their  native  tongue  in  discussing  the  state  affairs 


11  “  In  den  Raedt  van  State  deser 
Landen,”  said  the  States-General  to 
the  English  councillors,  “  worden 
gehandelt,  geconsulteert  ende  gere- 
solveert  de  saecken  den  staet  derzcl\  cr 
Landen  aengaende  ende  niet  den 
staet  van  Engelant.  Ende  daeromme 
en  connen  die  staten  nietverstaen  dat 
tot  dienste  van  dese  Landen  ofte  van 
liaer  Mal  by  forme  van  een  negative 


x  can  worden  geprocedeert  omme 
1  voort  ganct  der  resol  utie  te  beletten, 
.er  kebben  den  gouverneur  van  hare 
it  secours  ende  de  Raeden  by 
ere  Mat  geintroduceert_  hare  stem- 
;n  negative  ofte  affirmative  te  ge\  en 
i  andere  van  den  Raede.”  (Answer 
Wilkes  and  Bodley,  15  Oct.  loDO  ; 
igue  Archives  MS.) 


1590. 


QUARRELS  IN  THE  STATE-COUNCIL. 


33 


of  their  native  land.  It  was  however  considered  a  grievance 
by  the  two  English  members  that  the  Dutchmen  should 
speak  Dutch,  and  it  was  demanded  in  the  Queen’s  name  that 
they  should  employ  some  other  language  which  a  foreigner 


could  more  easily  understand.12 

The  Hollanders  however  refused  this  request,  not  believing 
that  in  a  reversed  case  her  Majesty’s  Council  or  Houses  of 
Parliament  would  be  likely  or  competent  to  carry  on  their 
discussions  habitually  in  Italian  or  Latin  for  the  benefit  of  a 
couple  of  strangers  who  might  not  be  familiar  with  English. 
The  more  natural  remedy  would  have  been  for  the  foreigners 
to  take  lessons  in  the  tongue  of  the  country,  or  to  seek  for 
an  interpreter  among  their  colleagues  ;  especially  as  the 
States,  when  all  the  Netherlands  were  but  provinces,  had 
steadily  refused  to  adopt  any  language  but  their  mother 
tongue,  even  at  the  demand  of  their  sovereign  prince.13 

At  this  moment,  Sir  Thomas  Bodley  was  mainly  entrusted 
with  her  Majesty’s  affairs  at  the  Hague,  but  his  overbearing 
demeanour,  intemperate  language,  and  passionate  style  of 
correspondence  with  the  States  and  with  the  royal  government, 


12  “  S.  Majeste  trouvant  estrange  qne 
voulsissiez  que  les  siens  demeurassent 
par  ce  moyen  muets  an  dit  conseil, 
requiert  que  des  a  present  et  a  l’avenir 
toutes  les  propositions,  consultations, 
conferences  et  deliberations  qui  se 
feront  au  dit  conseil  soyent  tousjours  es 
langues  Latine  ou  Francoise,  et  que 
les  actes  etregistres  desdictes  consulta¬ 
tions,  resolutions,  et  deliberations  se 
tiennent  en  l’une  deux  langues  sus- 
dictes.”  (Wilkes  and  Bodley  to  the 
States-General,  20  July,  1590 ;  Hague 
Archives  MS.) 

13  “  Alle  de  provincien,  Steden  ende 
Leden  van  dien  jegenwoordig  in  de 
Unie  wezende,”  said  the  States,  “  ge- 
bruycken  de  Nederlantsche  spraecke, 
ende  volgende  verscheyde  privilegien, 
ende  recliten  der  voorscreven  Landen 
en  mogende  Gecommitteerden  der  Sta¬ 
ten  van  de  respective  provincien  in  de 
zaecken  van  den  Lande  geen  ander  als 
de  Nederlandtsche  spraecke  gebruyc- 
ken.  Daeromme  en  is  niet  practica- 
bael  en  ditpuncteenigeveranderinghe 
inne  te  voeren.  Temin  nademael  die 


Staten  der  voorscreven  respective  pro¬ 
vincien  noyt  hebben  willen  gedoogen 
dat  haere  Gecommitteerden  in  saecken 
der  Landen  vreemde  spraecken  zouden 
gebruycken ;  oock  niettegestaende  het 
verzoeck  van  haerlicker  princen  seifs 
geschiet  uit  wichtige  ende  wel  gefon- 
deerde  redenen.  Ende  daer  zulcx  in 
eenige  zaecken  specialyck  met  veele 
difficultey  ten  isgeconsenteert  geweest, 
ten  tyde  als  in  de  vergaderinge  van  de 
Staten  verscheyden  provincien  van 
Walscher  sprake  waren  comparerende 
hebben  de  princen  daervan  den  Staten 
gegeven.  solennele  acte  van  non-pre- 
juditie  met  belofte  dat  zulcx  niet  in 
consequents  zoude  worden  getoogen. 
Ende  hebben  de  ondersaten  van  haere 
Mat  hen  beter  te  laeten  onderrichten 
in  den  Raedt  van  staet  vant  gunt 
aldaer  geproponeert  ende  gedelibereert. 
zal  worden,  dan  dat  de  Ingesetenen 
deser  Landen  jegens  de  recliten  ende 
privilegien  derzelver  in  debeleydinglie 
van  des  Landes  zaecken  vreemde 
spraecke  zouden  moeten  gebruycken.” 
Ibid. 


VOL.  III. — D 


since  the  death  of  Sir  Francis,  to  address  his  letters  to  the 
t*  i  rr  1.  wUTi  wVinm  it  would  be  impossible  lor 


council.15  Already  the  important  province  of  Holland  was 
dissatisfied  with  its  influence  in  that  body.  Bearing  one-hall 
of  the  whole  burthen  of  the  war  it  was  not  content  with  one 
ouarter  of  the  council  vote,  and  very  soon  it  became  the 
custom  for  the  States-General  to  conduct  all  the  mos 
important  affairs  of  the  republic.15  The  state  council  com¬ 
plained  that  even  in  war  matters  it  was  not  consulted,  and 
that  most  important  enterprises  were  undertaken  by  Fnnce 
Maurice  without  its  knowledge,  and  on  advice  of  the  Advocate 
alone.  Doubtless  this  was  true,  and  thus,  most  unfortunate  y, 
the  commonwealth  was  degraded  to  a  confederacy  instead  of 
becoming  an  incorporate  federal  State.  The  members  of  the 
States-General — as  it  has  been  seen-were  responsible  only 
to  their  constituents,  the  separate  provinces.  They  avowed 
allegiance,  each  to  his  own  province,  none  to  the  central 
government.  Moreover  they  were  not  representatives,  but 
envoys,  appointed  by  petty  provinces,  bound  by  written  orders, 
and  obliged  to  consult  at  every  step  with  their  sovereigns  at 
home.  The  Netherland  polity  was  thus  stamped  almost  at 
its  birth  with  a  narrow  provincialism.  Delay  and  hesitation 
thus  necessarily  engendered  were  overcome  in  the  days  o 
danger  by  patriotic  fervour.  The  instinct  of  union  for  the 
sake  of  the  national  existence  was  sufficiently  strong,  and 
Bor,  III.  xxvii.  530.  15  Vrmn,  24.  16 Ibld- 


1590.  EFFECT  OF  THE  STRUGGLE  ON  NEUTRAL  NATIONS.  35 

m 

the  robust,  practical  common  sense  of  the  people  sufficiently 
enlightened  to  prevent  this  weakness  from  degenerating  into 
impotence  so  long  as  the  war  pressure  remained  to  mould 
them  into  a  whole.  But  a  day  was  to  come  for  bitterly  lueing 
this  paralysis  of  the  imperial*  instincts  of  the  people,  this 
indefinite  decentralisation  of  the  national  strength. 

For  the  present,  the  legislative  and  executive  body  was 
the  States-General.  But  the  •  States-General  were  in  reality 
the  States  provincial,  and  the  States  provincial  weie  the  city 
municipalities,  among  which  the  magistracies  of  Holland  were 
preponderant. 

Ere  long  it  became  impossible  for  an  individual  to  lesist 
the  decrees  of  the  civic  authorities.  In  1591,  the  States- 
General  passed  a  resolution  by  which  these  arrogant  coipora- 
tions  virtually  procured  their  exemption  from  any  process  at 
the  suit  of  a  private  person  to  he  placed  oh  record.  So  fiu 
could  the  principle  of  sovereignty  he  pulverized.  City 

council  hoards  had  become  supreme.17 

It  was  naturally  impossible  during  the  long  continuance  of 
this  great  struggle,  that  neutral  nations  should  not  he 
injuriously  affected  by  it  in  a  variety  of  ways.  And  as  a 
matter  of  course  neutral  nations  were  disposed  to  counsel 
peace.  Peace,  peace,  jieace  was  the  sigh  of  the  bystandeis 
whose  commerce  was  impeded,  whose  international  relations 
were  complicated,  and  whose  own  security  was  endangered  in 
the  course  of  the  bloody  conflict.  It  was  however  not  very 
much  the  fashion  of  that  day  for  governments  to  obtrude 
advice  upon  each  other,  or  to  read  to  each  other  moral 
lectures.  It  was  assumed  that  when  the  expense  and  sacii- 
fice  of  war  had  been  incurred,  it  was  for  cause,  and  the 
discovery  had  not  yet  been  made  that  those  not  immediately  in¬ 
terested  in  the  fray  were  better  acquainted  with  its  merits  than 
the  combatants  themselves,  and  were  moreover  endued  with 
superhuman  wisdom  to  see  with  perfect  clearness  that  future 
issue  which  to  the  parties  themselves  was  concealed. 

17  Kluit,  iii.  52.  Compare  Fruin,  iv.  pp.  18-81,  to  whose  lucid  and  learned 
exposition’ of  the  Netherland  polity  I  am  under  great  obligations. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Cheap  apothegms  upon  the  blessings  of  peace  and  upon 
the  expediency  of  curbing  the  angry  passions,  uttered  by 
the  belligerents  of  yesterday  to  the  belligerents  of  to-day, 
did  not  then  pass  current  for  profound  wisdom. 

Still  the  emperor  Rudolph/  abstaining  for  a  time  from  his 
star-gazing,  had  again  thought  proper  to  make  a  feeble 
attempt  at  intervention  in  those  sublunary  matters  which 

were  supposed  to  be  within  his  sphere.13 

It  was  perfectly  well  known  that  Philip  was  incapable  of 
t  abating  one  jot  of  his  pretensions,  and  that  to  propose 
'  mediation  to  the  United  Provinces  was  simply  to  request  them, 
for  the  convenience  of  other  powers,  to  return  to  the  slavery 
out  of  which,  by  the  persistent  efforts  of  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
they  had  struggled.  Nevertheless  it  was  formally  pioposed 
to  re-open  those  lukewarm  fountains  of  diplomatic  common¬ 
place  in  which  ‘healing  had  been  sought  during  the  peace 
negotiations  6f  Cologne  in  the  year  1579.  But  the  States- 
General  resolutely  kept  them  sealed.  They  simply  answered 
his  imperial  Majesty  by  a  communication  of  certain  inter¬ 
cepted  correspondence  between  the  King  of  Spain  and  his 
ambassador  at  Vienna,  San  Clemente,  through  which  it  was 
satisfactorily  established  that  any  negotiation  would  prove 
as  gigantic  a  comedy  on  the  part  of  Spain  as  had  been  the 
memorable  conferences  at  Ostend,  by  which  the  invasion  of 
England  had  been  masked.19 

There  never  was  a  possibility  of  mediation  01  of  compromise 
except  by  complete  submission  on  the  part  ot  the  Nether- 
landers  to  Crown  and  Church.  Both  in  this,  as  well  as  in 
previous  and  subsequent  attempts  at  negotiations,  the  seciet 
instructions  of  Philip  forbade  any  real  concessions  on  liis 
side.  He  was  always  ready  to  negotiate,  he  was  especially 
anxious  to  obtain  a  suspension  of  arms  from  the  rebels 
during  negotiation,  but  his  agents  were  instructed  to  use 
great  dexterity  and  dissimulation  in  order  that  the  proposal 
for  such  armistice,  as  well  as  for  negotiation  at  all,  should 
appear  to  proceed,  not  from  himself  as  was  the  fact,  but  fiom 
18  Meteren,  xvi.  297.  19  Ibid. 


1590. 


PHILIP’S  PROPOSALS  FOR  A  COMPROMISE. 


37 


the  emperor  as  a  neutral  potentate.  The  king  uniformly- 
proposed  three  points  ;  firstly,  that  the  rebels  should  recon¬ 
vert  themselves  to  the  Catholic  religion  ;  secondly,  that  they 
should  return  to  their  obedience  to  himself ;  thirdly,  that 
they  should  pay  the  expenses  of  the  war.  Number  three  was, 
however,  usually  inserted  in  order  that,  by  conceding  it 
subsequently,  after  much  contestation,  he  might  appear  con¬ 
ciliatory.  It  was  a  vehicle  of  magninimity  towards  men 
grown  insolent  with  temporary  success.20  Numbers  one  and 
two  were  immutable. 

Especially  upon  number  one  was  concession  impossible. 
“  The  Catholic  religion  is  the  first  thing/'  said  Philip,  “  and 
although  the  rebels  do  not  cease  to  insist  that  liberty  of 
conscience  should  be  granted  them,  in  order  that  they  may 
preserve  that  which  they  have  had  during  these  past  years, 
this  is  never  to  be  thought  of  in  any  event."  The  king 
always  made  free  use  of  the  terrible  weapon  which  the 
Protestant  princes  of  Germany  had  placed  in  his  hands.  F or 
indeed  if  it  were  right  that  one  man,  because  possessed  of 
hereditary  power  over  millions  of  his  fellow  creatures,  should 
compel  them  all  to  accept  the  dogmas  of  Luther  or  of. 
Calvin  because  agreeable  to  himself,  it  was  difficult  to  say 
why  another  man,  in  a  similarly  elevated  position,  might 
not  compel  his  subjects  to  accept  the  creed  of  Trent,  or  the 
doctrines  of  Mahomet  or  Confucius.  The  Netherlanders  were 
fighting — even  more  than  they  knew — for  liberty  of  con¬ 
science,  for  equality*  of  all  religions  ;  not  for  Moses,  nor  for 
Melancthon  ;  for  Henry,  Philip,  or  Pius  ;  while  Philip  justly 
urged  that  no  prince  in  Christendom  permitted  license.  “  Let 
them  well  understand,"  said  his  Majesty,  “  that  since  others 
who  live  in  error,  hold  the  opinion  that  vassals  are  to  conform 
to  the  religion  of  their  master,  it  is  insufferable  that  it  should 
he  proposed  to  me  that  my  vassals  should  have  a  different  religion 


20  Minuta  de  instrucion  al  Marques 
de  Carvalho,  25  Jan.  1592,  Arch,  de 
Simancas,  MS.  “Como  hombres  in- 
solentes  con  los  buenos  sucesos  destos 
dias,  pidieren  que  se  hagan  con  ellos 


algunas  cosas  sin  fundamento,  por 
desviarlos  dellos  se  deben  a  lo  menos 
deshecharlos  con  esta  recompensa  de 
gastos  las  otras  pretenciones  que 
tuvieren  mal  fundadas.” 


38 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXII. 


from  mine- and  that  too  being  the  true  religion,  proved  by 

tion  This  must  be  arranged  with  the  authon  y 
commissioners  of  the  emperor,  since  it  is  well  understood  by 
them  that  the  vassal  is  never  to  differ  from  the  opinion  f 
master.”21  Certainly  it  was  worth  an  eighty  years  war  to 
drive  such  blasphemous  madness  as  this  out  of  human  beads, 

There  was  likewise  a  diet  held  during  the  summer  of  _ 
year  of  the  circles  of  the  empire  nearest  to  the  Netl ..  - 
lands— Westphalia,  Cleves,  Juliers,  and  Saxony— from  which 
“  —  I  w.™  deputed  Wft  ft  Brute*  «J  *.  » 

Hague,  to  complain  of  the  misfortunes  suffered  by  neutral 
and  neighbouring  nations  in  consequence  of  the  civil  wai. 

T^teok  nothing  h,  ft*  "  to  ft.  Duke  •  P- 
At  the  Hague  the  deputies  were  heard  on  the  22nd 
2im '  August,  1590.  They  complained  to  the  Sfates- 
Oeneral  of  “  brandschatting  ’’  on  the  border,  of  the  hole  mg 

.(Xte  hoyond  ft.  line..  »d  of 

territory,  of  the  cruising  of  the  war-vessels  of  the  States  off 
the  sSes  and  on  the  rivers,  and  of  their  interference  with 
lawful  traders.  Threats  were  made  of  forcible  intervention 

allTliePunited  States  replied  on  the  13th  September.  Ex- 


21  “  Lo  de  la  religion  Catolica  es  la 
primera  cosa  ;  y  aunque  no  dexaran  de 
insistir  rebeldes  en  qne  se  les  de  liber- 
tad  de  concientia  por  conservar  la  que 
ban  tenido  estosanos,no  se  ha  de  Oar 
lugar  a  esto  por  ninguno  caso— dando 
les  bien  a  entender  que  pues  otros  qui 
viven  en  errores  tienen  por  opinion 
que  sus  vassalos  se  ban  de  jjonformar 
con  la  religion  de  su  Senor,  no  se 
sufre  que  a  mi  se  me  proponga  que 
los  mios  la  tengan  diferente  que  yo, 
siendo  esta  la  verdadera  y  probada ^con 
tantos  testimonios  y  nnlagros  y  todo 
lo  demas  engano,  y  esto  se  lia  de  pr  - 
curar  con  la  autoridad  de  los  comisa- 
rios  del  emperador  pues  esmuy  recibido 
entre  ellos  de  no  baberse  de  apartar  el 
vassallo  de  la  opinion  de  su  senor. 
Ibid. 


In  July  of  this  year  Farnese  bad 
much  talk  with  tbe  Elector  of  Cologne 
at  Spa  about  peace  with  tlie  rebels 
through  tbe  mediation  of  tbe  Emperor. 
It  was  agreed  that  a  congress  should 
be  proposed  at  Cologne,  but  tbe  sug¬ 
gestion  was  not  to  appear  as  coming 
from  Philip,  and  Farnese  informed  bis 
master  that  tbe  Duke  of  Wirtemberg 
and  tbe  Landgrave  of  Hesse  would 
both  attend.  Although  heretics,  they 
were  described  as  pacific  and  pro¬ 
foundly  of  opinion  “  that  in  tbe  matter 
of  religion  vassals  were  necessarily 
to  conform  to  tbe  will  and  command 
of  their  princes.”  Parma  to  Philip, 
21  July,  1590;  (Arch,  de  Simancas 

MS.) 

22  Meteren,  xvi.  295,  seqq. 


1590. 


39 


COMPLAINTS  OF  NEIGHBOURING  NATIONS. 

pressing  deep  regret  that  neutral  nations  slionld  suffer,  they 
pronounced  it  to  be  impossible  but  that  some  ^  gept 
sparks  from  tlie  great  fire,  now  desolating  their  land, 
should  fly  over  into  their  neighbours’  ground.  The  States 
were  fighting  the  battle  of  liberty  against  slavery,  in  which 
the  future  generations  of  Germany,  as  well  as  of  the  Nether¬ 
lands  were  interested.  They  were  combating  that  horrible 
institution,  the  Holy  Inquisition.  They  were  doing  their  best 
to  strike  down  the  universal  monarchy  of  Spain,  which  they 
described  as  a  bloodthirsty,  insatiable,  insolent,  absolute 
dominion  of  Saracenic,  Moorish  Christians.23  They  warred 
with  a  system  which  placed  inquisitors  on  the  seats  of  judges, 
which  made  it  unlawful  to  read  the  Scriptures,,  which  violated 
all  oaths,  suppressed  all  civic  freedom,  trampled  on  all  laws 
and  customs,  raised  inordinate  taxes  by  arbitrary  decree,  and 
subjected  high  and  low  to  indiscriminate  muidei.  Spain  had 
sworn  the  destruction  of  the  provinces  and  their  subjugation 
to  her  absolute  dominion;  in  order  to  carry  out  her  scheme 
of  universal  empire. 

These  were  the  deeds  and  designs  against  which  the  States 
were  waging  that  war,  concerning  some  inconvenient  results 
of  which  their  neighbours,  now  happily  neutral,  were  com¬ 
plaining.  But  the  cause  of  the  States  was  the  cause  of  - 
humanity  itself.  This  Saracenic,  Moorish,  universal  mon¬ 
archy  had  been  seen  by  Germany  to  murder,  despoil,  and 
trample  upon  the  Netherlands.  It  had  murdered  millions  of 
innocent  Indians  and  Granadians.  It  had  kept  Naples  and 
Milan  in  abject  slavery.  It  had  seized  Portugal.  •  It  had 
deliberately  planned  and  attempted  an  accursed  invasion  of 
England  and  Ireland.  It  had  overrun  and  plundered  many 
cities  of  the  empire.  It  had  spread  a  web  of  secret  intrigue 
about  Scotland.  At  last  it  was  sending  great  armies  to  con¬ 
quer  Prance  and  snatch  its  crown.  Poor  France  now-  saw 
the  plans  of  this  Spanish  tyranny  and  bewailed  her  misery. 
The  subjects  of  her  lawful  king  were  ordered  to  rise  against 
him,  on  account  of  religion  and  conscience.  Such  holy 

23  Meteren,  xvi.  295,  seqq. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXII. 

pretexts  were  used  by  these  Saracenic  Christians  m  order  to 

gain  possession  of  that  kingdom.  . 

For  all  these  reasons,  men  should  not  reproach  the  inhabi¬ 
tants  of  the  Netherlands,  because  seeing  the  aims  of  this 
accursed  tyranny,  they  had  set  themselves  to  resist  it.  It  was 
contrary  to  reason  to  consider  them  as  disturbers  of  the 
general  peace,  or  to  hold  them  guilty  of  violating  their  oaths 
or  their  duty  to  the  laws  of  the  holy  empire.  The  States- 
General  were  sure  that  they  had  been  hitherto  faithful  and 
loyal,  and  they  were  resolved  to  continue  in  that  path. 

As  members  of  the  holy  empire,  in  part— as  of  old  they 
were  considered  to  be— they  had  rather  the  right  to  expect, 
instead  of  reproaches,  assistance  against  the  enormous  power 
and  inhuman  oppression  of  their  enemies.  *They  had  de¬ 
manded  it  heretofore  by  their  ambassadors,  and  they  still 
continued  to  claim  it.  They  urged  that,  according  to  the 
laws  of  the  empire,  all  foreign  soldiers,  Spaniards,  Saracens, 
and  the  like  should  be  driven  out  of  the  limits  of  the  empire. 
Through  these  means  the  German  Highland  and  the  German 
Netherland  might  be  restored  once  more  to  their  old  friend¬ 
ship  and  unity,  and  might  deal  with  each  other  again  in 

amity  and  commerce. 

If,  however,  such  requests  could  not  be  granted  they  at 
least  begged  his  electoral  highness  and  the  other  dukes,  lords, 
and  states  to  put  on  the  deeds  of  Netherlander  in  this 
laborious  and  heavy  war  the  best  interpretation,  in  order 
that  they  might,  with  the  better  courage  and  resolution,  bear 
those  inevitable  burthens  which  were  becoming .  daily  heavier 
in  this  task  of  resistance  and  self-protection  ;  in  order  that 
the  provinces  might  not  be  utterly  conquered,  and .  serve, 
with  their  natural  resources  and  advantageous  situation,  as 
sedes  et  media  belli  for  the  destruction  of  neighbouring  States 
and  the  building  up  of  the  contemplated  universal,  absolute 

monarchy.24 

The  United  Provinces  had  been  compelled  by  overpowering 
necessity  to  take  up  arms.  That  which  had  resulted  was  and 

24  Meteren,  xvi.  295,  seqq. 


1590.  REPLY  OF  THE  STATES-GENERAL.  41 

remained  in  terminis  def ensionis.  Their  object  was  to  protect 
what  belonged  to  them,  to  recover  that  which  by  force  or 
fraud  had  been  taken  from  them. 

In  regard  to  excesses  committed  by  their  troops  against 
neutral  inhabitants  on  the  border,  they  expressed  a  strong 
regret,  together  with  a  disposition  to  make  all  proper  retribu¬ 
tion  and  to  cause  all  crimes  to  be.  punished. 

They  alluded  to  the  enormous  sins  of  this  nature  practised 
by  the  enemy  against  neutral  soil.  They  recalled  to  mind 
that  the  Spaniards  paid  their  troops  ill  or  not  at  all,  and  that 
they  allowed  them  to  plunder  the  innocent  and  the  neutral, 
while  the  united  States  had  paid  their  troops  better  wages, 
and  more  punctually,  than  had  ever  been  done  by  the  greatest 
potentates  of  Europe.  It  was  true  that  the  States  kept  many 
cruisers  off  the  coasts  and  upon  the  rivers,  but  these  were  to 
protect  their  own  citizens  and  friendly  traders  against  pirates 
and  against  the  common  foe.  Germany  derived  as  much 
benefit  from  this  system  as  did  the  Provinces  themselves.25 

Thus  did  the  States-General,  respectfully  but  resolutely, 
decline  all  proffers  of  intervention,  which,  as  they  were  well 
aware,  could  only  enure  to  the  benefit  of  the .  enemy.  Thus 
did  they  avoid  being  entrapped  into  negotiations  which  could 
only  prove  the  most  lamentable  of  comedies. 


25  Meteren,  xvL  295,  seqq. 


42 


.  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIII. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 


Philip’s  scheme  of  aggrandizement  -Projected  invasion  of  France-  Internal 
condition  of  France -Character  of  Henry  of  Navarre -Preparation  for 
action — Battle  of  Ivry-Victory  of  the  French  king  over  the  Leaguer- 
Reluctance  of  the  king  to  attack  the  French  capital  —  Siege  of  Paris  The 

pope  indisposed  towards  the  League  -  Extraordinary  demonstration  of 
ecclesiastics -Influence  of  the  priests  -  Extremities  of  the  siege -At¬ 
tempted  negotiation  —  State  of  Philip’s  army  —  Difficult  position  of  Farnese 
-March  of  the  allies  to  the  relief  of  Paris -Lagny  taken  and  the  city 
relieved  -  Desertion  of  the  king’s  army  -  Siege  of  Corbeil  —  Death  of  Pope 
Sixtus  V.  — Re-capture  of  Lagny  and  Corbeil  —  Return  of  Parma  o 
Netherlands  —  Result  of  the  expedition. 


The  scene  of  the  narrative  shifts  to  France.  The  history  of 
the  United  Netherlands  at  this  epoch  is  a  world-history. 
Were  it  not  so,  it  would  have  far  less  of  moral  and  instruc¬ 
tion  for  all  time  than  it  is  really  capable  of  affording..  The 
battle  of  liberty  against  despotism  was  now  fought  m  the 
hop-fields  of  Brabant  or  the'  polders  of  Friesland,  now  m  the 
narrow  seas  which  encircle  England,  and  now  on  the  sunpy 
plains  of  Dauphiny,  among  the  craggy  inlets  of  Brittany,  or 
along  the  high  roads  and  rivers  which  lead  to  the  gates  ol 
Paris.  But  everywhere  a  noiseless,  secret,  hut  ubiquitous 
negotiation  was  speeding  with  never  an  instant’s  pause  to 
accomplish  the  work  which  lansquenettes  and  riders,  pikemen 
and  carabineers  were  contending  for  on  a  hundred  battle-fields 
and  amid  a  din  of  arms  which  for  a  quarter  of  a  century 
had  been  the  regular  hum  of  human  industry.  For  nearly  a 
generation  of  mankind,  Germans  and  Hollanders,  English¬ 
men,  Frenchmen,  Scotchmen,  Irishmen,  Spaniards  and  Italians 
seemed  to  he  horn  into  the  world  mainly  to  fight  for  or 
against  a  system  of  universal  monarchy,  conceived  for  us 
own  benefit  by  a  quiet  old  man  who  passed  his  days  at  a 
writing  desk  in  a  remote  corner  of  Europe.  It  must  be  con¬ 
fessed  that  Philip  II.  gave  the  world  work  enough.  Whether 


43 


1590. 


SCHEMES  OF  PHILIP  II. 


_ Fad  the  peoples  governed  themselves — their  energies  might 

not  have  been  exerted  in  a  different  direction,  and  on  the 
whole  have  produced  more  of  good  to  the  human  race  than 
came  of  all  this  blood  and  smoke,  may  be  questioned. 

But  the  divine  right  of  kings,  associating  itself  with  the 
power  supreme  of  the'  Church,  was  struggling  to  maintain  that 
old  mastery  of  mankind  which  awakening  reason  was  inclined 
to  dispute.  Countries  and  nations  being  regarded  as  private 
property  to  be  inherited  or  bequeathed  by  a  few  favoured 
individuals  —  provided  always  that  those  individuals  were 
obedient  to  the  chief-priest— it  had  now  become  right  and 
proper  for  the  Spanish  monarch  to  annex  Scotland,  England, 
and  France  to  the  very  considerable  possessions,  which  were 
already  his  own.  Scotland  he  claimed  by  virtue  of  the  ex¬ 
pressed  wish  of  Mary  to  the  exclusion  of  her  heretic  son. 
France,  which  had  been  unjustly  usurped  by  another  family 
in  times  past  to  his  detriment,  and  which  only  a  mere  human 
invention — a  ‘^pleasantry”  as  Alva  had  happily  termed  it, 
« called  the  Salic  law”— prevented  from  passing  quietly  to 
his  daughter,  as  heiress  to  her  mother,  daughter  of  Henry  II., 
he  was  now  fully  bent  upon  making  his  own  without  further 
loss  of  time.  England,  in  consequence  of  the  mishap  of  the 
year  eighty-eight,  he  was  inclined  to  defer  appropriating 
until  the  possession  of  the  French  coasts,  together  with  those 
of  the  Netherlands,  should  enable  him  to  risk  the  adventure 

with  assured  chances  of  success. 

The  Netherlands  were  fast  slipping  beyond  his  control,  to 
be  sure,  as  he  engaged  in  these  endless  schemes  )  and  ill-dis¬ 
posed  people  of  the  day  said  that  the  king  was  like  HI  sop  s 
dog,  lapping  the  river  dry  in  order  to  get  at  the  skins  floating 
'onthe  surface.  The  Duke  of  Parma  was  driven  to  his  wits’ 
ends  for  expedients,  and  beside  himself  with  vexation,  when 
commanded  to  withdraw  his  ill-paid  and  mutinous  army  fiom 
the  Provinces  for  the  purpose  of  invading  France.1  Most 


1  “  Con  todo,  claro  es,”  said  Cham- 
pagny,  with  bitterness,  “  que  no  bas- 
tando  ya  para  la  guerra  que  tenemos, 
mu  oho  menos  para  si  nos  engolfamos 


en  la  de  Francia Discours  sur  les 
affaires  des  Pays  Bas.  (MS.  before 
cited.) 


44 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXIII. 

importunate  were  the  appeals  and  potent  the  arguments  by 
which  he  attempted  to  turn  Philip  from  his  purpose.  It 
was  in  vain.  Spain  was  the  great,  aggressive,  over-shadow¬ 
ing  power  at  that  day,  before  whose  plots  and  whose  violence 
the  nations  alternately  trembled,  and  it  was  France  that  now 
stood  in  danger  of  being  conquered  or  dismembered  by  the 
common  enemy  of  all.  That  unhappy  kingdom,  torn  by  in¬ 
testine  conflict,  naturally  invited  the  ambition  and  the 
greediness  of  foreign  powers.  Civil  war  had  been  its  condition, 
with  brief  intervals,  for  a  whole  generation  of  mankind. 
During  the  last  few  years,  the  sword  had  been  never  sheathed, 
while  “  the  holy  Confederacy”  and  the  Bearnese  struggled 
together  for  the  mastery.  Religion  was  the  mantle  under 
which  the  chiefs  on  both  sides  concealed  their  real  designs 
as  they  led  on  their  followers  year  after  year  to  the  desperate 
conflict.  And  their  followers,  the  masses,  were  doubtless  in 
earnest.  A  great  principle — the  relation  of  man  to  his  Maker 
and  his  condition  in  a  future  world  as  laid  down  by  rival 
priesthoods— has  in  almost  every  stage  of  history  had  power 
to  influence  the  multitude  to  fury  and  to  deluge  the  world  in 
blood.  And  so  long  as  the  superstitious  element  of  human 
nature  enables  individuals  or  combinations  of  them  to  dictate 
to  their  follow-creatures  those  relations,  or  to  dogmatize  con¬ 
cerning  those  conditions — to  take  possession  of  their  con¬ 
sciences  in  short,  and  to  interpose  their  mummeries  between 
man  and  his  Creator— it  is  probable  that  such  scenes  as 
caused  the  nations  to  shudder  throughout  so  large  a  portion 
of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  will  continue  to 
repeat  themselves  at  intervals  in  various  parts  of  the  eaith. 
Nothing  can  be  more  sublime  than  the  self-sacrifice,  nothing, 
more  demoniac  than  the  crimes,  which  human  creatures  have' 
seemed  always  ready  to  exhibit  under  the  name  of  leligion. 

.It  was  and  had  been  really  civil  war  in  France.  In  the 
Netherlands  it  had  become  essentially  a  struggle  for  inde¬ 
pendence  against  a  foreign  monarch  ;  although  the  germ  out 
of  which  both  conflicts  had  grown  to  their  enormous  piopoi- 
tions  was  an  effort  of  the  multitude  to  check  the  growth  of 


1590.  CLAIMS  OF  HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.  45 

papacy.  In  France,  accordingly,  civil  war,  attended  by  that 
gaunt  sisterhood,  murder,  pestilence,  and  famine,  had.  swept 
from  the  soil  almost  everything  that  makes  life  valuable.  It 
had  not  brought  in  its  train  that  extraordinary  material  pros¬ 
perity  and  intellectual  development  at  which  men  wondered 
in  the  Netherlands,  and  to  which  allusion  has  just  been  made. 
But  a  fortunate  conjunction  of  circumstances  had  now  placed 
Henry  of  Navarre  in  a  position  of  vantage.  He  represented 
the  principle  of  nationality,  of  French  unity.  It  was  impos¬ 
sible*  to  deny  that  he  was  in  the  regular  line  of  succession, 
now  that  luckless  Henry  of  V alois  slept  with  his  fathers,  and 
the  principle  of  nationality  might  perhaps  prove  as  vital  a 
force  as  attachment  to  the  Homan  Church.  Moreover,  the 
adroit  and  unscrupulous  Bearnese  knew  well  how  to  shift 
the  mantle  of  religion  from  one  shoulder  to  the  other,  to  serve 
his  purposes  or  the  humours  of  those  whom  he  addressed. 

“  The  King  of  Spain  would  exclude  me  from  the  kingdom 
and  heritage  of  my  father  because  of  my  religion/'  he  said  to 
the  Duke  of  Saxony  ;  u  but  in  that  religion  I  am  determined 
to  persist  so  long  as  I  shall  live”2  The  hand  was  the  hand  of 
Henry,  but  it  was  the  voice  of  Duplessis  Mornay. 

“  Were  there  thirty  crowns  to  win,”  said  he,  at  about  the 
same  time  to  the  States  of  France,  “  I  would  not  change  my 
religion  on  compulsion ,  the  dagger  at  my  throat.  Instruct  me, 
instruct  me,  I  am  not  obstinate  ”3  There  spoke  the  wily  free¬ 
thinker,  determined  not  to  be  juggled  out  of  what  he  considered 
his  property  by  fanatics  or  priests  of  either  church.  Had  Henry 
been  a  real  devotee,  the  fate  of  Christendom  might  have  been 
different.  The  world  has  long  known  how  much  misery  it  is 
in  the  power  of  crowned  bigots  to  inflict. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Holy  League,  the  sacred  Confede¬ 
racy,  was  catholic  or  nothing.  Already  it  was  more  papist  than 
the  pope,  and  loudly  denounced  Sixtus  Y.  as  a  Huguenot 
because  he  was  thought  to  entertain  a  weak  admiration  both 
for  Henry  the  heretic  and  for  the  J ezebel  of  England.  • 

2  Lettre  du  Roy  an  Due  do  Saxe,  dressee  par  Duplessis.  Mem.  and  Corresp. 
de  Duplessis  Mornay,  iv.  491. 

3  Lettre  du  Roy  de  Navarre  aux  etats  de  ce  royauxne.  Ibid.  322,  seqq. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXIII. 

But  the  holy  confederacy  was  bent  on  destroying  the 
national  government  of  France,  and  dismembering  the  national 
domain.  To  do  this  the  pretext  of  trampling  out  heresy  and 
indefinitely  extending  the  power  of  Borne,  was  most  in¬ 
fluential  with  the  multitude,  and  entitled  the  leaders  to  enjoy 
immense  power  for  the  time  being,  while  maturing  tiem 
schemes  for  acquiring  permanent  possession  of  , 
fragments  of  the  national  territory.  Mayenne,  Nemours 
inhale,  Mercceur  longed  to  convert  temporary  governments 
L  independent  principalities.  The  Duke  of  Lorraine  footed 
with  longing  eyes  on  Verdun,  Sedan,  and  the  other  fair  cities 
within  the  territories  contiguous  to  his  own  domains^ 
reckless  house  of  Savoy,  with  whom  freebootmg  and  land- 
robbery  seemed  geographical  and  hereditary  necessities,  was  . 
busy  on  the  southern  borders,  while  it  seemed  easy  enoug  i 
for  Philip  II.,  in  right  of  his  daughter,  to  secure  at  least  the 
duchy  of  Brittany  before  entering  on  the  sovereignty  of  t  e 

■whole  kingdom.  , 

To  the  eyes  of  the  world  at  large  France  might  we 1  seem 

in  a  condition  of  hopeless  disintegration  ;  the  restoration  of 
its  unity  and  former  position  among  the  nations,  under  the 
government  of  a  single  chief,  a  weak  and  wicked  dream. 
Furious  and  incessant  were  the  anathemas  hurle  on  le  ea 
Of  the  Bearnese  for  his  persistence  in  drowning  the  and  in 
blood  in  the  hope  of  recovering  a  national  capital  which  nevei 
could  he  his,  and  of  wresting  from  the  control  of  the  con¬ 
federacy  that  power  which,  whether  usurped  or  rightful,  was 
considered,  at  least  by  the  peaceably  inclined,  to  have  become 

a  solid  fact.  _  , 

The  poor  puppet  looted  in  the  tower  of  Fontenay,  and 

entitled  Charles  X.,  deceived  and  scared  no  one.  Such  money 
as  there  was  might  be  coined  in  its  name,  but  Madam 
League  reigned  supreme  in  Paris.  The  confederates,  in¬ 
spired  by  the  eloquence  of  a  cardinal  legate,  and  supplied 
with  funds  by  the  faithful,  were  ready  to  dare  a  thousand 
deaths  rather  than  submit  to  the  rule  of  a  tyrant  and 

heretic. 


1590. 


47 


POWER  OF  THE  LEAGUE  IN  PARIS. 

What  was  an  authority  derived  from  the  laws  of  the  land 
tand  the  history  of  the  race  compared  with  the  dogmas  of 
Rome  and  the  trained  veterans  of  Spain  P  It  remained  to  he 
seen  whether  nationality  or  bigotry  would  triumph.  But  in 
the  early  days  of  1590  the  prospects  of  nationality  were  not 

encouraging.  #  . 

Francois  de  Luxembourg,  due  de  Pincey,  was  m  Rome  a^ 

that  moment,  deputed  by  such  catholic  nobles  of  Fiance  as 
were  friendly  to  Henry  of  Navarre.4  Sixtus  might  perhaps 
be  influenced  as  to  the  degree  of  respect  to  be  accorded .  to 
the  envoy’s  representations  by  the  events  of  the  campaign 
about  to  open.  Meantime  the  legate  Gaetano,  young,  rich, 
eloquent,  unscrupulous,  distinguished  alike  for  the  splendour 
of  his  house  and  the  brilliancy  of  his  intellect,  had  arrived  in 

pang  ^ 

Followed  by  a  great  train  of  adherents  he  had  gone,  down  . 
to  the  House  of  Parliament,  and  was  about  to  seat  himself 
under  the  dais  reserved  for  the  king,  when  Brisson,  first 
President  of  Parliament,  plucked  him  back  by  the  arm,  and 
caused  him  to  take  a  seat  immediately  below  his  own.0 

Deeply  was  the  bold  president  to  expiate  tins  defence 
of  king  and  law  against  the  Holy  League.  For  the  moment 
however  the  legate  contented  himself  with  a  long  harangue, 
setting  forth  the  power  of  Rome,  while  Brisson  replied  by  an 
oration  magnifying  the  grandeur  of  France. 

Soon  afterwards  the  cardinal  addressed  himself  to  the 
counteraction  of  Henry’s  projects  of  conversion.  Foi  well 
did  the  subtle  priest  understand  that  in  purging  himself  of 
heresy,  the  Bearnese  was  about  to  cut  the  giound  fiom 
beneath  his  enemies’  feet.  In  a  letter  to  the  archbishops  and 
bishops  of  France  he  argued  the  matter  at  length.  Especially 
he  denied  the  necessity  or  the  legality  of  an  assembly  of 
all  the  prelates  of  France,  such  as  Henry  desired  to  afford 
him  the  requisite  “  instruction”  as  to  the  respective  merits  of 
the  Roman  and  the  reformed  Church.  Certainly,  he  urged, 

4  De  Thou,  xi.  97,  pp.  100-103.  .  .  1Q1 

5  Dondini.  De  rebus  in  Gallia  gestae  ab  Alexandra  Farnesio,  i.  ldl. 

6  De  Thou,  ubi  sup.  p.  108.  * 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIII. 


48 


the  Prince  of  Bearne  could  hardly  require  instruction  as 
to  the  tenets  of  either,  seeing  that  at  different  times  he  had 
faithfully  professed  both.7 

But  while  benches  of  bishops  and  doctors  of  the  Sorbonne 
were  burnishing  all  the  arms  in  ecclesiastical  and  legal 
arsenals  for  the  approaching  fray,  the  sound  of  louder  if  not 
more  potent  artillery  began  to  be  heard  in  the  vicinity  of 
Paris.  The  candid  Henry,  while  seeking  ghostly  instruction 
with  eagerness  from  his  papistical  patrons,  was  equally  per¬ 
severing  in  applying  for  the  assistance  of  heretic  musketeeis 
and  riders  from  his  protestant  friends  in  England,  Holland, 
Germany,  and  Switzerland. 

Queen  Elizabeth  and  the  States-General  vied  with  each 
other  in  generosity  to  the  great  champion  of  protestantism, 
who  was  combating  the  holy  league  so  valiantly,  and  rarely 
has  a  great  historical  figure  presented  itself  to  the  world  so 
bizarre  of  aspect,  and  under  such  shifting  perplexity  of 
light  and  shade,  as  did  the  Bearnese  in  the  early  spring 

of  1590. 

The  hope  of  a  considerable  portion  of  the  catholic  nobility 
of  his  realm,  although  himself  an  excommunicated  heretic  ; 
the  mainstay  of  Calvinism  while  secretly  bending  all  his 
energies  to  effect  his  reconciliation  with  the  pope  ;  the  idol 
of  the  austere  and  grimly  puritanical,  while  himself  a 
model  of  profligacy;  the  leader  of  the  earnest  and  the 
true,  although  false  as  water  himself  in  every  relation  in 
which  human  beings  can  stand  to  each  other ;  a  standard- 
bearer  of  both  great  branches  of  the  Christian  Church 
in  an  age  when  religion  was  the  atmosphere  of  men’s %  daily 
lives,  yet,  finding  his  sincerest  admirer,  and  one  of  his  most 
faithful  allies,  in  the  Grand  Turk,8  the  representative  of 


7  Dc  Thou,  ubi  sup.  p.  108. 

8  A  portion  of  tlie  magnificently 
protective  letter  of  Sultan  Amurath, 
in  which  he  complimented  Henry  on 
his  religious  stedfastness, might  almost 
have  made  the  king’s  cheek  tingle. 

“  .  .  .  “  a  toi,  Henri  de  Navarre  de 
la  race  invincible  des  Bourbons,  nous 
avons  entendu  que  Don  Philippe, 


de  la  maison  d’Autriche,  favorisant 
aucuns  de  tes  ennemis,  taclie  de  te 
priver  de  la  succession  legitime  qui 
t’appartient  au  royaume  de  France  qui 
est  de  notre  alliance  et  confederation 
en  haine  de  ce  que  tu  detestes  les  faux 
services  des  idoles ,  tres  deplaisantes  au 
grand  Bieu ,  pour  tenir  purement  ce 
que  tu  tiens  qui  est  le  meilleur  du 


1590. 


RELATIVE  POWER  OF  HENRY  AND  PHILIP. 


49 


national  liberty  and  human  rights  against  regal  and  sacerdo¬ 
tal  absolutism,  while  himself  a  remorseless  despot  by  nature 
and  education,  and  a  believer  in  no  rights  of  the  people  save 
in  their  privilege  to  be  ruled  by  himself,  it  seems  strange 
at  first  view  that  Henry  of  Navarre  should  have  been  for 
centuries  so  heroic  and  popular  an  image.  But  he  was  a 
soldier,  a  wit,  a  consummate  politician ;  above  all,  he  was 
a  man,  at  a  period  when  to  be  a  king  was  often  to  be  some¬ 
thing  much  less  or  much  worse. 

To  those  accustomed  to  weigh  and  analyse  popular  forces 
it  might  well  seem  that  he  was  now  playing  an  utterly  hope¬ 
less  game.  His  capital  garrisoned  by  the  Pope  and  the 
King  of  Spain,  with  its  grandees  and  its  populace  scoffing  at 
his  pretence  of  authority  and  loathing  his  name  ,  with  an 
exchequer  consisting  of  what  he  could  beg  or  borrow  from 
Queen  Elizabeth— most  parsimonious  of  sovereigns  reigning 
over  the  half  of  a  small  island— and  from  the  States-Gfeneral 
governing  a  half-born,  lialf-drowned  little  lepublic,  engaged 
in  a  quarter  of  a  century’s  warfare  with  the  greatest  monarch 
in  the  world  ;  with  a  wardrobe  consisting  of  a  dozen  shirts 
and  five  pocket-handkerchiefs,9  most  of  them  ragged,  and  with  a 
commissariat  made  up  of  what  coukl  be  brought  in  the  saddle¬ 
bags  of  his  Huguenot  cavaliers  who  came  to  the  charge  with 
him  to-day,  and  to-morrow  were  dispersed  again  to  their  moun¬ 
tain  fastnesses  ;  it  did  not  seem  likely  on  any  reasonable  theory 
of  dynamics  that  the  power  of  the  Bearncse  w  as  capable  of  out¬ 
weighing  Pope  and  "Spain,  and  the  meanei  but  massive  popu¬ 
lace0  of  France,  and  the  Sorbonne,  and  the  great  chiefs  of  the 
confederacy,  wealthy,  long  descended,  allied  to  all  the  sove¬ 
reigns  of  Christendom,  potent  in  territorial  possessions  and 
skilful  in  wielding  political  influences. 


monde;  je  te  fais  assavoir  qu’ayant 
en  liorreur  cette  cause  qui  ne  tend 
qu’au  profit  particular  de  ceux  qui  se 
sont  el  eves  contre  toi,  je  veux  prendre 
ta  protection  et  tellcment  donipter  la 
folie  de  tes  ennemis  et  de  l’Espagnol 
qui  t’occupe  injustement  le  royaume 
de  Navarre,  qu’il  en  sera  memoire  a 
jamais,  et  te  rendant  victorieux,  je 
veux  te  rftablir  avec  ma  puissance  re- 

VOL.  III. — E 


doutable  par  tout  le  monde  au  grand 
epouvantement  de  tous  les  roys,  ayant 
moyen  de  les  reduire  en  telle  extre- 
mite  qu’ils  ne  te  feront  jamais  ennui.” 

Arch,  de  Simancas  (Paris)  B.  64^* 

Cited  by  Capefigue,  Hist,  de  la  Re¬ 
forme,  de  la  Ligue  et  du  regne  de 
Henri  IV.  v.  381.  9  L’Estoile,  p.  203. 


£Q  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXIII. 

“  The  Bearnese  is  poor  hut  a  gentleman  of  good  family, 
said  the  cheerful  Henry,  and  it  remained  to  be  seen  whether 
nationality,  unity,  legitimate  authority,  history,,  and.  aw 
would  he  able  to  neutralise  the  powerful  combination  oi 

opposing  elements.  , 

The  king  had  been  besieging  Dreux  and  had  made  good 

progress  in  reducing  the  outposts  of  the  city.  As  it  was 

known  that  he  was  expecting  considerable  reinforcements  ot 

English  ships,  Netherlander,  and  Germans,  the  chiefs  of  the 

league  issued  orders  from  Paris  for  an  attack  before  he  should 

thus  be  strengthened.  # 

For  Parma,  unwillingly  obeying  the  stringent  commands 

of  his  master,  had  sent  from  Flanders  eighteen  hundred 
picked  cavalry  under  Count  Philip  Egmont  to  join  the  army 
of  Mayenne.  This  force  comprised  five  hundred  Belgian 
heavy  dragoons  under  the  chief  nobles  of  the  land,  together 
with  a  selection,  in  even  proportions,  of  Walloon,  German, 
Spanish,  and  Italian  troopers. 

Mayenne  accordingly  crossed  the  Seine  at  Mantes  with  an 
army  of  ten  thousand  foot,  and,  including  Egmont’s  contin¬ 
gent,  about  four  thousand  horse.  A  force  under  Marshal 
d’Aumont,  which  lay  in  Ivry  at  the  passage  of  the  Eure,  fell 
back  on  his  approach  and  joined  the  remainder  of  the  king  s 
army.  The  siege  of  Dreux  was  abandoned,  and  Henry  with¬ 
drew  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Nonancourt.  It  was  obvious 
that  the  duke  meant  to  offer  battle,  and  it  was  rare  that  the 
king  under  any  circumstances  could  be  induced  to  decline  a 

coni!)  tit  ^ 

On  the  night  of  the  12tli-13th  March,  Henry  occupied 
Saint  Andre,  a  village  situated  on  an  elevated  and  extensive 
plain  four  leagues  from  Nonancourt,  in  the  direction  of  Ivry, 
fringed  on  three  sides  by  villages  and  by  a  wood,  and  com¬ 
manding  a  view  of  all  the  approaches  from  the  country 
between  the  Seine  and  Eure.  It  would  have  been  better  had 
Mayenne  been  beforehand  with  him,  as  the  sequel  proved  ; 

10  L’Estoile,  p.  203.  dos  Baxos,  iii.  43,  seqq.  Panna  to 

11  De  Thou,  t.  xi.  lib.  97,  pp.  116,  Philip,  24  March,  lo90,  (Arch,  de 
ssqq.  Coloma,  Guerras  de  los  Esta-  Simancas  MS.) 


1590. 


PREPARATION  FOR  ACTION. 


51 


but  the  duke  was  not  famed  for  the  rapidity  of  his  movements. 
During  the  greater  part  of  the  night,  Henry  was  employed  in 
distributing  his  orders  for  that  conflict  which  was  inevitable 
on  the  following  day.  His  army  was  drawn  up  according  to 
a  plan  prepared  by  himself,  and  submitted  to  the  most  ex¬ 
perienced  of  his  generals  for  their  approval.  He  then  per¬ 
sonally  visited  every  portion  of  the  encampment,  speaking 
words  of  encouragement  to  his  soldiers,  and  perfecting  his 
arrangements  for  the  coming  conflict.  Attended  by  Marshals 
d’Aumont  and  Biron  he  remained  on  horseback  during  a 
portion  of  the  night,  having  ordered  his  officers  to  their  tents 
and  reconnoitred  as  well  as  he  could  the  position  of  the 
enemy.  Towards  morning  he  retired  to  his  headquarters  at 
Fourainville,  where  he  threw  himself  half-dressed  on  his 
truckle  bed,  and  although  the  night  was  bitterly  cold,  with  no 
covering  but  his  cloak.  He  was  startled  from  his  slumber 
before  the  dawn  by  a  movement  of  lights  in  the  enemy’s 
camp,  and  he  sprang  to  his  feet  supposing  that  the  duke  was 
stealing  a  march  upon  him  despite  all  his  precautions.  The 
alarm  proved  to  be  a  false  one,  but  Henry  lost  no  time  in 
ordering  his  battle.  His  cavalry  he  divided  in  seven  troops 
or  squadrons.  The  first,  forming  the  left  wing,  was  a  body  of 
three  hundred  under  Marshal  d’Aumont,  supported  by  two 
regiments  of  French  infantry.  Next,  separated  by  a  short 
interval,  was  another  troop  of  three  hundred  under  the  Duke 
of  Montpensier,  supported  by  two  other  regiments  of  foot,  one 
Swiss  and  one  German.  In  front  of  Montpensier  was  Baron 
Biron  the  younger,  at  the  head  of  still  another  body  of  three 
hundred.  Two  troops  of  cuirassiers,  each  lour  hundred  stiong, 
were  on  Biron’s  left,  the  one  commanded  by  the  Grand  Prior 
of , France,  Charles  d’AngouDme,  the  other  by  Monsieur  de 
Givry.  Between  the  Prior  and  Givry  were  six  pieces  of 
heavy  artillery,  while  the  battalia,  formed  of  eight  hundred 
horse  in  six  squadrons,  was  commanded  by  the  king  in  person, 
and  covered  on  both  sides  by  English  and  Swiss  infantry , 
amounting  to  some  four  thousand  in  all.  The  right  wing  was 
under  the  charge  of  old  Marshal  Biron,  and  comprised  three 


52 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIII. 


troops  of  horse,  numbering  one  hundred  and  fifty  each,  two 
companies  of  German  riders,  and  four  regiments  of  French 
infantry.  These  numbers,  which  are  probably  given  with  as 
much  accuracy  as  can  he  obtained,  show  a  force  of  about  three 

thousand  horse  and  twelve  thousand  foot. 

The  Duke  of  Mayenne,  seeing  too  late  the  advantage  of 
position  which  he  might  have  easily  secured  the  day  before, 
led  his  army  forth  with  the  early  light,  and  arranged  it  in  an 
order  not  very  different  from  that  adopted  by  the  king,  and 
within  cannon-shot  of  his  lines.  The  right  wing  under 
Marshal  de  la  Chatre  consisted  of  three  regiments  of  French 
and  one  of  Germans,  supporting  three  regiments  of  Spanish 
lancers,  two  cornets  of  German  riders  under  the  Bastard  of 
Brunswick,  and  four  hundred  cuirassiers.  The  battalia,  which 
was  composed  of  six  hundred  splendid  cavalry,  all  noblemen 
of  France,  guarding  the  white  banner  of  the  Holy  League, 
and  supported  by  a  column  of  three  thousand  Swiss  and  two 
thousand  French  infantry,  was  commanded  by  Mayenne  in 
person,  assisted  by  his  half-brother,  the  Duke  of  Nemours. 
In  front  of  the  infantry  was  a  battery  of  six  cannon  and  tluee 
culverines.  The  left  wing  was  commanded  by  Marshal  de  Rene, 
with  six  regiments  of  French  and  Lorrainers,  two  thousand 
Germans,  six  hundred  French  cuirassiers,  and  the  mounted 
troopers  of  Count  Egmont.  It  is  probable  that  Mayenne’s 
whole  force,  therefore,  amounted  to  nearly  four  thousand 

cavalry  and  at  least  thirteen  thousand  foot. 

Very  different  was  the  respective  appearance  of  the  two 
armies,  so  far,  especially,  as  regarded  the  hoi  semen  on  both 
sides.  Gay  in  their  gilded  armour  and  waving  plumes^ 
with  silken  scarves  across  their  shoulders,  and  the  fluttering 
favours  of  fair  ladies  on  their  arms  or  in  their  helmets, 
the  brilliant  champions  of  the  Holy  Catholic  Confederacy 
clustered  around  the  chieftains  of  the  great  house  of  Guise, 
impatient  for  the  conflict.  It  was  like  a  muster  foi  a  bril¬ 
liant  and  chivalrous  tournament.  The  Walloon  and  Flemish 

12  De  Tliou,  Coloma,  uU  sup.  Dondini,  i.  140,  seqq.  Meteren,  xvi.  292. 
Parma’s  letters  before  cited. 


1590. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  IVRY. 


53 


nobles,  outrivalling  even  the  self-confidence  of  their  com¬ 
panions  in  arms,  taunted  them  with  their  slowness.  The 
impetuous  Egmont,  burning  to  eclipse  the  fame  of  his  ill- 
fated  father  at  Gravelines  and  St.  Quintin  in  the  same  holy 
cause,  urged  on  the  battle  with  unseemly  haste,  loudly  pro¬ 
claiming  that  if  the  French  were  faint-hearted  he  would  him¬ 
self  give  a  good  account  of  the  Navarrese  prince  without  any 
assistance  from  them. 

A  cannon-shot  away,  the  grim  puritan  nobles  who  had  come 
forth  from  their  mountain  fastnesses  to  do  battle  for  king  and 
law  and  for  the  rights  of  conscience  against  the  Holy  League 
— men  seasoned  in  a  hundred  battle-fields,  clad  all  in  iron,  with 
no  dainty  ornaments  nor  holiday  luxury  of  warfare— knelt 
on  the  ground,  smiting  their  mailed  breasts  with  iron  hands, 
invoking  blessings  on  themselves  and  curses  and  confusion  on 
their  enemies  in  the  coming  conflict,  and  chanting  a  stem 
psalm  of  homage  to  the  God  of  battles  and  of  wrath.  And 
Henry  of  France  and  Navarre,  descendant  of  Lewis  the  Holy 
and  of  Hugh  the  Great,  beloved  chief  of  the  Calvinist 
cavaliers,  knelt  among  his  heretic  brethren,  and  prayed  and 
chanted  with  them.  But  not  the  staunchest  Huguenot  of 
them  all,  not  Huplessis,  nor  D’Aubigne,  nor  De  la  Noue  with 
the  iron  arm,  was  more  devoted  on  that  day  to  crown  and 
country  than  were  such  papist  supporters  of  the  rightful  heir 
as  had  sworn  to  conquer  the  insolent  foreigner  on  the  soil  of 

France  or  die. 

When  this  brief  prelude  was  over,  Henry  made  an  address 
to  his  soldiers,  but  its  language  has  not  been  preseived.  It 
is  known,  however,  that  he  wore  that  day  his  famous  snow- 
white  plume,  and  that  he  ordered  his  soldiers,  should  his 
banner  go  down  in  the  conflict,  to  follow  wherever  and  as 
long  as  that  plume  should  be  seen  waving  on  any  part  of  the 
field.  He  had  taken  a  position  by  which  his  troops  had  the 
sun  and  wind  in  their  backs,  so  that  the  smoke  rolled  toward 
the  enemy  and  the  light  shone  in  their  eyes.  The  combat  began 
with  the  play  of  artillery,  which  soon  became  so  warm  that 

13  De  Thou,  ubi  sup. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIII. 


54 


Egmont,  whose  cavalry — sufiering  and  galled — soon  became 
impatient,  ordered  a  charge.  It  was  a  most  brilliant  one. 
The  heavy  troopers  of  Flanders  and  Hainault,  following  their 
spirited  chieftain,  dashed  upon  old  Marshal  Biron,  routing 
his  cavalry,  charging  clean  up  to  the  Huguenot  guns  and 
sabring  the  cannoneers.  The  shock  was  square,  solid,  irre¬ 
sistible,  and  was  followed  up  by  the  German  riders  under  Eric 
of  Brunswick,  who  charged  upon  the  battalia  of  the  royal 
army,  where  the  king  commanded  in  person. 

There  was  a  panic.  The  whole  royal  cavalry  wavered, 
the  supporting  infantry  recoiled,  the  day  seemed  lost  before  the 
battle  was  well  begun.  Yells  of  u  Victory !  Victory !  up  with 
the  Holy  League,  down  with  the  heretic  Bearnese,”  re¬ 
sounded  through  the  Catholic  squadrons.  The  king  and 
Marshal  Biron,  who  were  near  each  other,  were  furious  with 
rage,  but  already  doubtful  of  the  result.  They  exerted  them¬ 
selves  to  rally  the  troops  under  their  immediate  command, 
and  to  reform  the  shattered  ranks.14 

The  German  riders  and  French  lancers  under  Brunswick 
and  Bassompierre  had,  however,  not  done  their  work  as 
thoroughly  as  Egmont  had  done.  The  ground  was  so  miry 
and  soft  that  in  the  brief  space  which  separated  the  hostile 
lines  they  had  not  power  to  urge  their  horses  to  full  speed. 
Throwing  away  their  useless  lances,  they  came  on  at  a  feeble 
canter,  sword  in  hand,  and  were  unable  to  make  a  very 
vigorous  impression  on  the  more  heavily  armed  troopers 
opposed  to  them.  Meeting  with  a  firm  resistance  to  their 
career,  they  wheeled,  faltered  a  little  and  fell  a  short  dis¬ 
tance  back.15  Many  of  the  riders  being  of  the  reformed 


14  De  Thou,  Dondini,  Coloma,  Me- 
teren,  ubi  sup. 

15  William  Lyly  to  Sir  F.  Walsing- 
ham,  20  March,  1590,  (S.  P.  Office 
MS.),  a  blunt,  plain-spoken  English¬ 
man  and  eye-witness,  writing  from  the 
spot.  Memoires  de  Sully,  ed.  Lon- 
dres,  1747,  iii.  L.  1G8,  169.  The  Due 
de  Sully,  who  fought  in  the  squadron 
which  sustained  Egmont’s  first  onset, 
and  who  received  seven  wounds,  states 


expressly  that  the  king  would  have 
been  hopelessly  defeated,  had  the 
whole  army  of  the  League  displayed 
the  same  remarkable  valour  as  was 
manifested  by  Egmont’s  command. 
The  right  of  the  royal  cavalry  broke 
into  a  panic  flight,  after  the  hand  to 
hand  combat  had  lasted  a  quarter  of 
an  hour,  and  the  left  was  broken  and 
thrown  into  utter  confusion 


1590.  THE  BATTLE  OF  IVRY.  55 

religion,  refused  moreover  to  lire  upon  the  Huguenots,  and 

discharged  their  carbines  in  the  air.16 

The  king,  whose  glance  on  the  battle-field  was  like  inspi¬ 
ration,  saw  the  blot  and  charged  upon  them  in  person  with 
his  whole  battalia  of  cavalry.  The  veteran  Biron  followed 
hard  upon  the  snow-white  plume.  The  scene  was  changed, 
victory  succeeded  to  impending  defeat,  and  the  enemy  was 
routed.  The  riders  and  cuirassiers,  broken  into  a  struggling 
heap  of  confusion,  strewed  the  ground  with  their  dead  bodies, 
or  carried  dismay  into  the  ranks  of  the  infantry  as  they  strove 
to  escape.  Brunswick  went  down  in  the  melee,  mortally 
wounded  as  it  was  believed.  Egmont  renewing  the  charge  at 
the  head  of  his  victorious  Belgian  troopers,  fell  dead  with  a 
musket-ball  through  his  heart.  The  shattered  German  and 
Walloon  cavalry,  now  pricked  forward  by  the  lances  of  their 
companions,  under  the  passionate  commands  of  Mayenne  and 
Aumale,  now  falling  back  before  the  furious  charges  of  the 
Huguenots,  were  completely  overthrown  and  cut  to  pieces. 
Seven  times  did  Henry  of  Navarre  in  person  lead  his  troopers 
to  the  charge  ;  but  suddenly,  in  the  midst  of  the  din  of  battle 
and  the  cheers  of  victory,  a  message  of  despair  went  from  lip 
to  lip  throughout  the  royal  lines.  The  king  had  disappeared. 

.  He  was  killed,  and  the  hopes  of  Protestantism  and  of  France 
were  fallen  for  ever  with  him.  The  white  standard  of  his 
battalia  had  been  seen  floating  wildly  and  purposelessly  over 
the  field  ;  for  his  bannerman,  Pot  de  Rhodes,  a  young  noble  of 
Dauphiny,  wounded  mortally  in  the  head,  with  blood  streaming 
over  his  face  and  blinding  his  sight,  was  utterly  unable  to 
control  his  horse,  who  gallopped  hither  and  thither  at  his 
own  caprice,  misleading  many  troopers  who  followed  in 
his  erratic  career.  A  cavalier,  armed  in  proof,  and  wearing 
the  famous  snow-white  plume,  after  a  hand-to-hand  struggle 
with  a  veteran  of  Count  Bossu’s  regiment,  was  seen  to  fall 
dead  by  the  side  of  the  bannerman.  The  Fleming,  not  used 
to  boast,  loudly  asserted  that  he  had  slain  the  Bearnese,  and 
the  news  spread  rapidly  over  the  battle-field.  The  defeated 

16  Sully,  ubi  sup. 


50  the  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap  XXIII. 

Confederates  gained  new  courage,  the  victorious  Royalists 
were  beginning  to  waver,  when  suddenly,  between  the  hostile 
lines,  in  the  very  midst  of  the  battle,  the  king  gallopped 
forward,  bareheaded,  covered  with  blood  and  dust,  but  entirely 
unhurt.  A  wild  shout  of  “  Vive  le  Roi !”  rang  through  the 
air.  Cheerful  as  ever,  he  addressed  a  few  encouraging  words 
to  his  soldiers,  with  a  smiling  face,  and  again  led  a  charge. 
It  was  all  that  was'  necessary  to  complete  the  victory.  The 
enemy  broke  and  ran  away  on  every  side  in  wildest  confusion, 
followed  by  the  royalist  cavalry,  who  sabred  them  as  they 
fled.  The  panic  gained  the  foot-soldiers,  who  should  have 
supported  the  cavalry,  but  had  not  been  at  all  engaged  in 
the  action.  The  French  infantry  threw  away  their  arms  as 
6  they  rushed  from  the  field  and  sought  refuge  in  the  woods. 
The  Walloons  were  so  expeditious  in  the  race,  that  they  never 
stopped  till  they  gained  their  own  frontier.17  The  day  was 
hopelessly  lost,  and  although  Mayenne  had  conducted  himself 
well  in  the  early  part  of  the  day,  it  was  certain  that  he  was 
excelled  by  none  in  the  celerity  of  his  flight  when  the  rout 
had  fairly  begun.  Pausing  to  draw  breath  as  he  gained  the 
wood,  he  was  seen  to  deal  blows  with  his  own  sword  among 
the  mob  of  fugitives,  not  that  he  might  rally  them  to  their 
flag  and  drive  them  back  to  another  encounter,  but  because 

they  encumbered  his  own  retreat.18 

The  Walloon  carbineers,  the  German  riders,  and  the  French 
lancers,  disputing  as  to  the  relative  blame  to  be  attached  to 
each  corps,  began  shooting  and  sabring  each  other,  almost 
before  they  were  out  of  the  enemy’s  sight.  Many  were  thus 
killed.  The  lansquenets  were  all  put  to  the  sword.  The  Swiss 
infantry  were  allowed  to  depart  for  their  own  country  on 
pledging  themselves  not  again  to  bear  arms  against  Henry  IY. 


17  Lyly’s  letter  before  cited.  Com¬ 
pare  Coloma,  Dondini,  De  Tliou,  Me- 
teren,  ubi  sup. 

18  Decorous  chroniclers  like  Don¬ 
dini  (i.  143)  and  others,  represent  the 
duke  as  vigorously  rallying  and  re¬ 
buking  the  fugitives  ;  but,  says  honest 
William  Lyly,  telling  what  he  saw : 


“  The  enemy  thus  ran  away,  Mayenne 
to  Ivry,  where  the  Walloons  and 
Reiters  followed  so  fast,  that  there 
standing,  hasting  to  draw  breath,  and 
not  able  to  speak,  he  was  constrained 
to  draw  his  sword  to  strike  the  flyers 
to  make  place  for  his  own  flight/’ 
(MS.  letter  before  cited.) 


57 


1590. 


VICTORY  OF  HENRY  OVER  THE  LEAGUE. 


It  is  probable  that  eight  hundred  of  the  leaguers  were  either 
killed  on  the  battle-field  or  drowned  in  the  swollen  river  in 
their  retreat.  About  one-fourth  of  that  number  fell  in  the 
army  of  the  king.  It  is  certain  that  of  the  contingent  from 
the  obedient  Netherlands,  two  hundred  and  seventy,  including 
their  distinguished  general,  lost  their  lives.10  The  Bastaid  of 
Brunswick,  crawling  from  beneath  a  heap  of  slain,  escaped 
with  life.20  Mayenne  lost  all  his  standards  and  all  the 
baggage  of  his  army,  while  the  army  itself  was  for  a  time 

hopelessly  dissolved.21 

Few  cavalry  actions  have  attained  a  wider  celebrity  in 
history  than  the  fight  of  Ivry.  Yet  there  have  been  many 
hard-fought  battles,  where  the  struggle  was  fiercer  and 
closer,  where  the  issue  was  for  a  longer  time  doubtful, 
where  far  more  lives  on  either  side  were  lost,  where  the  final 
victory  was  immediately  productive  of  very  much  greater 
results,  and  which,  nevertheless,  have  sunk  into  hopeless  ob¬ 
livion.  '  The  personal  details  which  remain  concerning  the  part 
enacted  by  the  adventurous  king  at  this  most  critical  period 
of  his  career,  the  romantic  interest  which  must  always  gather 
about  that  ready-witted,  ready-sworded  Gascon,  at  the  moment 
when,  to  contemporaries,  the  result  of  all  his  struggles  seemed 
so  hopeless  or  at  best  so  doubtful ;  above  all,  the  numerous 
royal  and  princely  names  which  embellished  the  roll-eall  of 
that  famous  passage  of  arms,  and  which  were  supposed,  in 
those  days  at  least,  to  add  such  lustre  to  a  battle-field,  as 
humbler  names,  however  illustrious  by  valour  or  virtue,  could 
never  bestow,  have  made  this  combat  for  ever  famous. 

Yet  it  is  certain  that  the  most  healthy  moral,  in  military 
affairs,  to  be  derived  from  the  event,  is  that  the  importance 
of  a  victory  depends  less  upon  itself  than  on  the  use  to  be 
made  of  it.  Mayenne  fled  to  Mantes,  the  Duke  of  Nemours 
to  Chartres,  other  leaders  of  the  League  in  various  directions. 
Mayenne  told  every  body  he  met  that  the  Bearnese  was 


19  Be  Thou  says  eight  hundred, 
Dondini  four  hundred,  hut  Farnese  in 
his  letter  to  the  king  says  two  hun¬ 
dred  and  seventy. 


20  So  says  Dondini,  i.  149.  Coloma 
says  he  was  killed. 

21  Dondini,  De  Thou,  Coloma,  Me- 
teren,  Parma’s  letters,  Lyly’s  letter. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIII. 


58 


killed,  and  that  although,  his  own  army  was  defeated,  he 
should  soon  have  another  one  on  foot.  The  same  intelli¬ 
gence  was  communicated  to  the  Duke  of  Parma,  and  by  him 
to  Philip.  Mendoza  and  the  other  Spanish  agents  went 
about  Paris  spreading  the  news  of  Henry’s  death,  but  the 
fact  seemed  woefully  to  lack  confirmation,  while  the  proofs 
of  the  utter  overthrow  and  shameful  defeat  of  the  Leaguers 
were  visible  on  every  side.  The  Parisians — many  of  whom 
the  year  before  had  in  vain  hired  windows  in  the  principal 
streets,  in  order  to  witness  the  promised  entrance  of  the 
Bearnese,  bound  hand  and  foot,  and  with  a  gag  in  his  mouth,-2 
to  swell  the  triumph  of  Madam  League — were  incredulous 
as  to  the  death  now  reported  to  them  of  this  very  lively 

heretic,  by  those  who  had  fled  so  ignominiously  from  his 

% 

troopers. 

De  la  Noue  and  the  other  Huguenot  chieftains  earnestly 
urged  upon  Henry  the  importance  of  advancing  upon  Paris 
without  an  instant’s  delay,  and  it  seems  at  least  extremely 
probable  that,  had  he  done  so,  the  capital  would  have  fallen 
at  once  into  his  hands.  It  is  the  concurrent  testimony  of 
contemporaries  that  the  panic,  the  destitution,  the  confusion 
would  have  made  resistance  impossible  had  a  deter¬ 
mined  onslaught  been  made.23  And  Henry  had  a  couple 
of  thousand  horsemen  flushed  with  victory,  and  a  dozen 
thousand  foot  who  had  been  compelled  to  look  upon  a 
triumph  in  which  they  had  no  opportunity  of  sharing. 
Success  and  emulation  would  have  easily  triumphed  over 
dissension  and  despair. 

But  the  king,  yielding  to  the  councils  of  Biron  and 
other  catholics,  declined  attacking  the  capital,  and  preferred 
waiting  the  slow,  and  in  his  circumstances  eminently 
hazardous,  operations  of  a  regular  siege.  Was  it  the  fear  of 
giving  a  signal  triumph  to  the  cause  of  protestantism  that 
caused  the  Huguenot  leader — so  soon  to  become  a  renegade 
— to  pause  in  his  career  ?  Was  it  anxiety  lest  his  victorious 


22  L’Estoile  Reg.  Journal  de  Henri  IV.  p.  6. 

23  Dondini,  Coloma,  ubi  sup.  Compare  De  Thou,  Meteren,  Sully,  et  mult.  al. 


1590. 


SIEGE  OF  PARIS. 


59 


entrance  into  Paris  might  undo  the  diplomacy  of  his  catholic 
envoys  at  Eome  P  or  was  it  simply  the  mutinous  condition  of 
his  army,  especially  of  the  Swiss  mercenaries,  who  lefused  to 
advance  a  step  unless  their  arrears  of  pay  were  at  once 
furnished  them  out  of  the  utterly  empty  exchequer  of  the 
Inner  ?24  Whatever  may  have  been  the  cause  of  the-  delay, 
it  is  certain  that  the  golden  fruit  of  victory  was  not  plucked, 
and  that  although  the  confederate  army  had  rapidly  dis¬ 
solved,  in  consequence  of  their  defeat,  the  king’s  own  forces 
manifested  as  little  cohesion. 

And  now  began  that  slow  and  painful  siege,  the  details  of 
which  are  as  terrible,  hut  as  universally  known,  as  those  of  any 
chapters  in  the  blood-stained  history  of  the  century.  Heme 
seized  upon  the  towns  guarding  the  rivers  Seine  and  Marne, 
twin  nurses  of  Paris.  By  controlling  the  course  of  those 
streams  as  well  as  that  of  the  Yonne  and  Oise  especially 
by  taking  firm  possession  of  Lagny  on  the  Marne,  whence  a 
bridge  led  from  the  Isle  of  France  to  the  Biie  country 
great  thoroughfare  of  wine  and  corn — and  of  Corbeil  at  the 
junction  of  the  little  river  Essonne  with  the  Seine— it  was 
easy  in  that  age  to  stop  the  vital  circulation  of  the  imperial 

city. 

By  midsummer,  Paris,  unquestionably  the  first  city  of 
Europe  at  that  day,25  was  in  extremities,  and  there  are  few 
events  in  history  in  which  our  admiration  is  rnoie  excited 
by  the  power  of  mankind  to  endure  almost  preternatural 
misery,  or  our  indignation  more  deeply  aroused  by  the 
cruelty  with  which  the  sublimest  principles  of  human  nature 
may  be  made  to  serve  the  purposes  of  selfish  ambition  and 
grovelling  superstition,  than  this  famous  leaguer. 

Barely  have  men  at  any  epoch  defended  their  fatherland 
against  foreign  oppression  with  more  heroism  than  that  which 
was  manifested  by  the  Parisians  of  1590  in  lesisting  religious 
toleration,  and  in  obeying  a  foreign  and  priestly  despotism. 
Men,  women,  and  children  cheerfully  laid  down  their  lives  by 

24  Memoires  de  Sully,  lib.  iv.  177,  seqq. 

ss  “Aquclla  vasta  ciudad,  sin  disputa  la  mayor  dc  Europa,  says  Coloma,  in.  4a. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIII. 


60 


thousands  in  order  that  the  papal  legate  and  the  king  of  Spain 
might  trample  upon  that  legitimate  sovereign  of  France  who 
was  one  day  to  become  the  idol  of  Paris  and  of  the  whole 
kingdom. 

A  census  taken  at  the  beginning  of  the  siege  had  showed 
a  populace  of  two  hundred  thousand  souls,  with  a  sufficiency 
of  provisions,  it  was  thought,  to  last  one  month.26  But  before 
the  terrible  summer  was  over — so  completely  had  the  city 
been  invested— the  bushel  of  wheat  was  worth  three  hundred 
and  sixty  crowns,  rye  and  oats  being  but  little  cheaper. 7 
Indeed,  grain  might  as  well  have  cost  three  thousand  crowns 
the  bushel,  for  the  prices  recorded  placed  it  beyond  the 
reach  of  all  but  the  extremely  wealthy.  The  flesh  of  horses, 
asses,  dogs,  cats,  rats  had  become  rare  luxuries.  There 
was  nothing  cheap,  said  a  citizen  bitteily,  but  seimons. 
And  the  priests  and  monks  of  every  order  went  daily  about 
the  streets,  preaching  fortitude  in  that  great  resistance  to 
heresy,  by  which  Paris  was  earning  for  itself  a  crown  of  glory, 
and  promising  the  most  direct  passage  to  paradise  for  the 
souls  of  the  wretched  victims  who  fell  daily,  starved  to  death, 
upon  the  pavements.  And  the  monks  and  priests  did  their 
work  nobly,  aiding  the  general  resolution  by  the  example  of 
their  own  courage.  Better  fed  than  their  fellow  citizens, 
they  did  military  work  in  trench,  guard-house  and  rampart, 
as  the  population  became  rapidly  unfit,  from  physical 

exhaustion,  for  the  defence  of  the  city. 

The  young  Duke  of  Nemours,  governor  of  the  place, 
manifested  as  much  resolution  and  conduct  in  biinging  his 
countrymen  to  perdition  as  if  the  work  in  which  he  was 
engaged  had  been  the  highest  and  holiest  that  cvei  tasked 
human  energies.  He  was  sustained  in  his  task  by  that 
proud  princess,  his  own  and  Mayenne’s  mother,  by  Madame 
Montpensier,  by  the  resident  triumvirate  of  Spain,  Mendoza, 


23  De  Thou,  t.  xi.  lib.  97,  162. 

27  Eor,  III.  xviii.  535. 

28  L’Estoile,  23  —  “  Tout  ce  qui 
estoit  bon  march  e  a  Paris  etoient  les 
sermons  ou  on  repaissoit  le  pauvre 
monde  affame  de  vent,  c’est  a  dire  de 


menteries  .  .  .  persuadant  qu’il  valoit 
mieux  tuer  ses  propres  enlants,  n  ayant 
de  quoi  leur  donner  a  manger,  qim  de 
recevoir  et  reconnoitre  un  roy  liere- 
ticque,”  &c. 


1590. 


THE  POPE  AND  THE  LEAGUE. 


61 


Commander  Moreo,  and  John  Baptist  Tassis;  by  the  caidinal 
legate  Gaetano,  and,  more  than  all,  by  the  sixteen  chiefs  of 
the  wards,  those  municipal  tyrants  of  the  unhappy  popu¬ 
lace.29 

Pope  Sixtus  himself  was  by  no  means  eager  for  the  success 
of  the  League.  After  the  battle  of  Ivry,  he  had  most  seriously 
inclined  his  ear  to  the  representations  of  Henry’s  envoy, 
and  showed  much  willingness  to  admit  the  victorious  heretic 
once  more  into  the  bosom  of  the  Church.  Sixtus  w  as  not 
desirous  of  contributing  to  the  advancement  of  Philip’s  power. 
He  feared  his  designs  on  Italy,  being  himself  most  anxious 
at  that  time  to  annex  Naples  to  the  holy  see.  He  had 
amassed  a  large  treasure,  but  he  liked  best  to  spend  it  in 
splendid  architecture,  in  noble  fountains,  in  magnificent  col¬ 
lections  of  art,  science,  and  literature,  and,  above  all,  in  build¬ 
ing  np  fortunes  for  the  children  of  his  sister  the  washei- 
woman,  and  in  allying  them  all  to  the  most  princely  houses 
of  Italy,  while  never  allowing  them  even  to  mention  the 
name  of  their  father,  so  base  was  his  degree  ;  but  he  cared 
not  to  disburse  from  his  hoarded  dollars  to  supply  the  neces¬ 
sities  of  the  League.30 

But  Gaetano,  although  he  could  wring  but  fifty  thousand 
crowns  from  his  Holiness  after  the  fatal  fight  of  Ivry,  to  further 
the  good  cause,  was  lavish  in  expenditures  from  his  own  purse 
and  from  other  sources,  and  this  too  at  a  time  when  thirty- three 
per  cent,  interest  was  paid  to  the  usurers  of  Antwerp  for  one 
month’s  loan  of  ready  money.31  He  was  indefatigable,  too, 
and  most  successful  in  his  exhortations  and  ghostly  consola¬ 
tions  to  the  people.  Those  proud  priests  and  great  nobles 
were  playing  a  reckless  game,  and  the  hopes  of  mankind 
beyond  the  grave  were  the  counters  on  their  table.  For 
themselves  there  were  rich  prizes  for  the  winning.  Should 
they  succeed  in  dismembering  the  fair  land  where  they  were 
enacting  their  fantastic  parts,  there  were  temporal  princi¬ 
palities,  great  provinces,  petty  sovereignties,  to  be  carved  out 

29  L’Estoile,  23,  seqq.  De  Tliou,  ubi  sup.,  1G2,  seqq.  Bor,  ubi  sup. 
so  De  Thou,  lib.  97.  21  Meteren,  xvi.  293. 


^  the  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXIII. 

of  the  heritage  which  the  Bearnese  claimed  for  his  own.  Olwi 
ously  then,  their  consciences  could  never  permit  this  shameless 
heretic,  by  a  simulated  conversion  at  the  critical  moment,  to 
block  their  game  and  restore  the  national  unity  and  laws. 
And  even  should  it  he  necessary  to  give  the  whole  kingdom, 
instead  of  the  mere  duchy  of  Brittany,  to  Philip  of  Spain, 
still  there  were  mighty  guerdons  to  he  bestowed  on  his  sup¬ 
porters  before  the  foreign  monarch  could  seat  himself  on  the 
throne  of  Henry’s  ancestors. 

As  to  the  people  who  were  fighting,  starving,  dying  by 
thousands  in  this  great  cause,  there  were  eternal  rewards  m 
another  world  profusely  promised  for  their  heroism  instead 
of  the  more  substantial  bread  and  beef,  for  lack  of  which 

they  were  laying  down  their  lives. 

It  was  estimated  that  before  J uly  twelve  thousand  human 
beings  in  Paris  had  died,  for  want  of  food,  within  three  months. 
But  as  there  were  no  signs  of  the  promised  relief  by  the  aimy 
of  Parma  and  Mayenne,  and  as  the  starving  people  at  times 
appeared  faint-hearted,  their  courage  was  strengthened  one 
day  by  a  stirring  exhibition. 

An  astonishing  procession  marched  through  the  streets  of 
the  city,  led  by  the  Bishop  of  Senlis  and  the  Prior  of  Chart- 
reux,  each  holding  a  halberd  in  one  hand  and  a  crucifix  in  the 
other,  and  graced  by  the  presence  of  the  cardinal-legate,  and 
of  many  prelates  from  Italy.  A  lame  monk,  adroitly  manipu¬ 
lating  the  staff  of  a  drum  major,  went  hopping  and  limping 
before  them,  much  to  the  amazement  of  the  crowd. .  Then 
came  a  long  file  of  monks — Capuchins,  Bernardists,  Minimes, 
Franciscans,  Jacobins,  Carmelites,  and  other  orders— each 
with  his  cowl  thrown  back,  his  long  robes  trussed  up,  a  helmet 
on  his  head,  a  cuirass  on  his  breast,  and  a  halbeid  in  his 
hand.  The  elder  ones  marched  first,  grinding  their  teeth, 
rolling  their  eyes,  and  making  other  ferocious  demonstrations. 
Then  came  the  younger  friars,  similarly  attired,  all  armed 
with  arquebusses,  which  they  occasionally  and  accidentally 
discharged  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  spectators,  several  of 
whom  were  killed  or  wounded  on  the  spot.  Among  others  a 


1590.  ECCLESIASTICAL  DEMONSTRATIONS.  63 

servant  of  Cardinal  Gfaetano  was  thus  slain,  and  the  event 
caused  much  commotion,  until  the  cardinal  proclaimed  that 
a  man  thus  killed  in  so  holy  a  cause  had  gone  straight  to 
heaven  and  had  taken  his  place  among  the  just.  It  was  im¬ 
possible,  thus  argued  the  people  in  their  simplicity,  that  so 
wise  and  virtuous  a  man  as  the  cardinal  should  not  know 
what  was  best. 

The  procession  marched  to  the  church  of  our  Lady  of 
Loretto,  where  they  solemnly  promised  to  the  blessed  Virgin 
a  lamp  and  ship  of  gold — should  she  be  willing  to  use  her 
influence  in  behalf  of  the  suffering  city — to  be  placed  on  her 
shrine  as  soon  as  the  siege  should  be  raised.32 

But  these  demonstrations,  however  cheering  to  the  souls, 
had  comparatively  little  effect  upon  the  bodies  of  the  sufferers # 
It  was  impossible  to  walk  through  the  streets  of  Paris  without 
stumbling  over  the  dead  bodies  of  the  citizens.  Trustworthy 
eye-witnesses  of  those  dreadful  days  have  placed  the  numbei 
of  the  dead  during  the  summer  at  thirty  thousand.30  A  tu¬ 
multuous  assemblage  of  the  starving  and  the  forlorn  rushed 
at  last  to  the  municipal  palace,  demanding  peace  or  bread. 
The  rebels  were  soon  dispersed  however  by  a  charge,  headed 
by  the  Chevalier  d’Aumale,  and  assisted  by  the  chiefs  of  the 
wards,  and  so  soon  as  the  riot  was  quelled,  its  ringleadei,  a 
leading  advocate,  BenaudLy  name,  was  hanged.31 

Still,  but  for  the  energy  of  the  priests,  it  is  doubtful 
whether  the  city  could  have  been  held  by  the  Confederacy. 
The  Duke  of  Hemours  confessed  that  there  were  occasions 
when  they  never  would  have  been  able  to  sustain  a  deter¬ 
mined  onslaught,  and  they  were  daily  expecting  to  see  the 
Prince  of  Bearne  battering  triumphantly  at  their  gates. 
But  the  eloquence  of  the  preachers,  especially  of  the  one- 
eyed  father  Boucher,  sustained  the  fainting  spirits  of  the 
people,  and  consoled  the  sufferers  in  their  dying  agonies  by 
glimpses  of  paradise.  Sublime  was  that  devotion,  super¬ 
human  that  craft,  but  it  is  only  by  weapons  from  the  armoury 

82  De  Thou,  t.  xi.  lib.  97,  p.  161.  Herrera,  P.  iii.  lib.  v.  cl.  210. 

83  L’Estoile,  p.  25.  Herrera  says  50,000,  loc.  cit.  34  De  Thou,  ubi  sup.  1<7. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIIL 


64 


of  the  Unseen  that  human  creatures  can  long  confront  such 
horrors  in  a  wicked  cause.  Superstition,  in  those  days  at 
least,  was  a  political  force  absolutely  without  limitation,  and 
most  adroitly  did  the  agents  of  Spain  and  Rome  handle  its 
tremendous  enginry  against  unhappy  France.  For  the 
hideous  details  of  the  most  dreadful  sieges  recorded  in  ancient 
or  modern  times  were  now  reproduced  in  Paris.  Not  a 
revolutionary  circumstance,  at  which  the  world  had  shuddered 
in  tiie  accounts  of  the  siege  of  Jerusalem,  was  spared.  Men 
devoured  such  dead  vermin  as  could  he  found  lying  in  the 
streets.  They  crowded  greedily  around  stalls  in  the  public 
squares  where  the  skin,  bones,  and  offal  of  such  dogs,  cats 
and  unclean  beasts  as  still  remained  for  the  consumption  of 
the  wealthier  classes  were  sold  to  the  populace.  Over  the 
doorways  of  these  flesh  markets  might  be  read  “  Hciec  sunt 
munera  j)to  iis  giii  v  it  can  jpvo  Philippo  pTofuclevunt.  3o  Men 
stood  in  archways  and  narrow  passages  lying  in  wait  for 
whatever  stray  dogs  still  remained  at  large,  noosed  them, 
strangled  them,  and  like  savage  beasts  of  prey  tore  them  to 
pieces  and  devoured  them  alive.36  And  it  sometimes  hap¬ 
pened,  too,  that  the  equally  hungry  dog  proved  the  more 
successful  in  the  foul  encounter,  and  fed  upon  the  man. 
A  lady  visiting  the  Duchess  of  Nemours — called  for  the 
high  pretensions  of  her  sons  by  her  two  marriages  the  queen- 
mother — complained  bitterly  that  mothers  in  Paris  had  been 
compelled  to  kill  their  oAn  children  outright  to  save  them 
from  starving  to  death  in  lingering  agony.  u  And  if  you 
are  brought  to  that  extremity/’  replied  the  duchess,  “  as  for 
the  sake  of  our  holy  religion  to  be  forced  to  kill  your  own 
children,  do  you  think  that  so  great  a  matter  after  all  ? 
What  are  your  children  made  of  more  than  other  people’s 
children  P  What  are  we  all  but  dirt  and  dust  ?” 37  Such 
was  the  consolation  administered  by  the  mother  of  the  man 
who  governed  Paris,  and  defended  its  gates  against  its  lawful 
sovereign  at  the  command  of  a  foreigner  ;  while  the  priests  in 

35  L’Estoile,  27.  “  De  ce  que  j’ecris,”  adds  the  journalist,  “  mes  yeux  ont  veu 

line  bonne  partie.”  3(5  De  Thou,  ubi  sup.  177.  37  L’Estoile,  29. 


1590 


SUFFERINGS  OF  THE  BESIEGED. 


65 


their  turn  persuaded  the  populace  that  it  was  far  more 
righteous  to  kill  their  own  children,  if  they  had  no  food  to 
give  them,  than  to  obtain  food  by  recognising  a  heretic 
king.38 

It  was  related  too,  and  believed,  that  in  some  instances 
mothers  had  salted  the  bodies  of  their  dead  children  and  fed 
upon  them,  day  by  day,  until  the  hideous  repast  would  no 
longer  support  their  own  life.  They  died,  and  the  secret  was 
revealed  by  servants  who  had  partaken  of  the  food. 9  The 
Spanish  ambassador,  Mendoza,  advised  recourse  to  an  article 
of  diet  which  had  been .  used  in  some  of  the  oriental  sieges. 
The  counsel  at  first  was  rejected  as  coming  from  the  agent  of 
Spain,  who  wished  at  all  hazards  to  save  the  capital  of  F ranee 
from  falling  out  of  the  hands  of  his  master  into  those  of  the 
heretic.  But  dire  necessity  prevailed,  and  the  bones  of  the 
dead  were  taken  in  considerable  quantities  from  the  cemeteries, 
ground  into  flour,  baked  into  bread,  and  consumed.  It  was 
called  Madame  Montpensier's  cake,  because  the  duchess 
earnestly  proclaimed  its  merits  to  the  poor  Parisians.  “  She 
was  never  known  to  taste  it  herself,  however,”  bitterly  observed 
one  who  lived  in  Paris  through  that  horrible  summer.  She 
was  right  to  abstain,  for  all  who  ate  of  it  died,  and  the  Mont- 
pensier  flour  fell  into  disuse.40 

Lansquenets  and  other  soldiers,  mad  with  hunger  and  rage, 
when  they  could  no  longer  find  dogs  to  feed  on,  chased 
children  through  the  streets,  and  were  known  in  several 
instances  to  kill  and  devour  them  on  the  spot.41  To  those 
expressing  horror  at  the  perpetration  of  such  a  crime,  a 
leading  personage,  member  of  the  Council  of  Nine,  maintained 
that  there  was  less  danger  to  one's  soul  in  satisfying  one's 
hunger  with  a  dead  child,  in  case  of  necessity,  than  in  recog¬ 
nising  the  heretic  Bearnese,  and  he  added  that  all  the  best 
theologians  and  doctors  of  Paris  were  of  his  opinion.42 


38  L’Estoile,  23.  39  Ibid.  25. 

40  Ibid.  De  Thou,  ubi  sup.  177. 

41  L’Estoile,  30. 

42  Ibid.  “  Lansquenets,  gens  de  soi 
barbares  et  inhumains,  mourans  de 

VOL.  III. — F 


male  rage  et  faim,  commencerent  a 
chasser  aux  enfans  comme  aux  chiens, 
et  en  mangerent  trois,  deux  a  l’hostel 
Saint  Denis  et  un  a  l’liotel  de  Pa- 
laiseau,  et  fut  commis  ce  cruel  et  bar- 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXIII. 

As  the  summer  wore  on  to  its  close,  through  all  these 
horrors,  and  as  there  were  still  no  signs  of  Mayenne  and  Parma 
leading  their  armies  to  the  relief  of  the  city,  it  became 
necessary  to  deceive  the  people  by  a  show  of  negotiation 
with  the  beleaguering  army.  Accordingly,  the  Spanish  an  - 
bassador,  the  legate,  and  the  other  chiefs  of  the  Holy  Leagm 
appointed  a  deputation,  consisting  of  the  Cardinal  Gondy, 
Archbishop  of  Lyons,  and  the  Abbe  d’Elbene,  to  Henry.  . 
soon  became  evident  to  the  king,  however,  that  these  commis¬ 
sioners  were  but  trifling  with  him  in  order  to  amuse  the 
populace.  His  attitude  was  dignified  and  determined  through¬ 
out  the  interview.  The  place  appointed  was  St.  Anthony  s 
Abbey,  before  the  gates  of  Paris.  Henry  wore  a  cloak  ant 
the  order  of.  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  was  surrounded  by  his 
council,  the  princes  of  the  blood,  and  by  more  than  tour 
hundred  of  the  chief  gentlemen  of  his  army.  After  passing 
the  barricade,  the  deputies  were  received  by  old  Marshal 
Biron,  and  conducted  by  him  to  the  king’s  chamber  of  state. 
When  they  had  made  their  salutations,  the  king  led  t  e  way 
to  an  inner  cabinet,  but  his  progress  was  much  impeded  by 
the  crowding  of  the  nobles  about  him.  Wishing  to  excuse 
this  apparent  rudeness,  he  said  to  the  envoys  :  “  Gentlemen, 
these  men  thrust  me  on  as  fast  to  the  battle  against  the 
foreigner  as  they  now  do  to  my  cabinet.  Therefore  beai  wi  1 
them.”  Then  turning  to  the  crowd,  he  said  :  “  Roorn^  gentle- 
men,  for  the  love  of  me,”  upon  which  they  all  retired.44 

The  deputies  then  stated  that  they  had  been  sent  by  the 
authorities  of  Paris  to  consult  as  to  the  means  of  obtaining  a 
general  peace  in  France.  They  expressed  the  hope  that  the 


bare  acte  dans  l’enceinte  des  murailles 
de  Paris,  tant  Tire  de  Dieu  estoit  em- 
brassee  sur  nos  testes.  Ce  qni  tenant 
du  commencement  pour  une  table 
pour  ce  que  me  sembloit  que  hoc  erat 
atrocius  vero,  j’ai  trouve  depuis^que 
c’estoit  verite,confesse  et  temoigne  pai 
les  propres  boucb.es  des  lansquenets. 
De  moi  i’ai  out  tenir  ceste  proposition 
a  un  grand  Catliolique  de  Paris  qui 
estoit  du  Conseil  des  Neuf  quil  y 
avoit  moins  de  danger  de  s  accomoder 


d’un  enfant  mort  en  telle  necessite  que 
de  reconnoitre  le  Bearn ais,  estant 
bereticque  comme  il  estoit,  et  que  de 
son  opinion  estoient  tous  les  meilleurs 
tlieologiens  et  docteurs  de  I  ans. 
Compare  Meteren,  xvi.  293,  who  re¬ 
lates  tliat  eighteen  children  were  said 
to  have  been  eaten. 

43  De  Thou,  ubi  sup.  ^  Jaly 

44  W.  Lyly  to  Sir  E.  Stafford,  g  Aug  ’ 
1590.  (S.  P.  Office  MS  ) 


1590. 


PRETENDED  NEGOTIATIONS. 


67 


king’s  disposition  was  favourable  to  this  end,  and  that  he 
would  likewise  permit  them  to  confer  with  the  Duke  of 
Mayenne.  This  manner  of  addressing  him  excited  his  choler. 
He  told  Cardinal  Gondy,  who  was  spokesman  of  the  deputa¬ 
tion,  that  he  had  long  since  answered  such  propositions.  He 
alone  could  deal  with  his  subjects.  He  was  like  the  woman 
before  Solomon  ;  he  would  have  all  the  child  or  none  of  it.45 
Bather  than  dismember  his  kingdom  he  would  lose  the  whole. 
He  asked  them  what  they  considered  him  to  be.  They  answered 
that  they  knew  his  rights,  but  that  the  Parisians  had  different 
opinions.  If  Paris  would  only  acknowledge  him  to  be  king 
there  could  be  no  more  question  of  war.  He  asked  them  if 
they  desired  the  King  of  Spain  or  the  Duke  of  Mayenne  for 
their  king,  and  bade  them  look  well  to  themselves.  The 
King  of  Spain  could  not  help  them,  for  he  had  too  much 
business  on  hand  ;  while  Mayenne  had  neither  means  nor 
courage,  having  been  within  three  leagues  of  them  for 
three  weeks  doing  nothing.  Neither  king  nor  duke  should 
have  that  which  belonged  to  him,  of  that  they  might  be 
assured.46  He  told  them  he  loved  Paris  as  his  capital,  as  his 
eldest  daughter.  If  the  Parisians  wished  to  see  the  end  of  their 
miseries  it  was  to  him  they  should  appeal,  not  to  the  Spaniard 
nor  to  the  Duke  of  Mayenne.  By  the  grace  of  God  and  the 
swords  of  his  brave  gentlemen  he  would  prevent  the  King  of 
Spain  from  making  a  colony  of  France  as  he  had  done  of 
Brazil.  He  told  the  commissioners  that  they  ought  to  die  of 
shame  that  they,  born  Frenchmen,  should  have  so  forgotten 
their  love  of  country  and  of  liberty  as  thus  to  bow  the  head 
to  the  Spaniard,  and — while  famine  was  carrying  off  thousands 
of  their  countrymen  before  their  eyes — to  be  so  cowardly  as 
not  to  utter  one  word  for  the  public  welfare  from  fear  of 
offending  Cardinal  Gaetano,  Mendoza,  and  Moreo.47  He  said 
that  he  longed  for  a  combat  to  decide  the  issue,  and  that  he 
had  charged  Count  de  Brissac  to  tell  Mayenne  that  he  would 
give  a  finger  of  his  right  hand  for  a  battle,  and  two  for  a 


45  W.  Lyly  to  Sir  E.  Stafford, 
1590.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.) 


46  Ibid.  Compare  De  Thou,  xi.  97. 

47  De  Thou,  ubi  sup. 


Chap.  XXIII. 


gg  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 

general  peace.18  He  knew  and  pitied  the  sufferings  of  Paris 
but  the  horrors  now  raging  there  were  to  please  the  King  ot 
Spain.  That  monarch  had  told  the  Duke  of  Parma  to  trouble 
himself  hut  little  about  the  Netherlands  so  long  as  he  could 
preserve  for  him  his  city  of  Paris.  But  it  was  to  lean  on  a 
broken  reed  to  expect  support  from  this  old,  decrepit  king, 
whose  object  was  to  dismember  the  flourishing  kingdom  of 
France,  and  to  divide  it  among  as  many  tyrants  as  he  had  sent 
viceroys  to  the  Indies.49  The  crown  was  his  own  birthright. 
Were  it  elective  he  should  receive  the  suffrages  of  the  great 
mass  of  the  electors.  He  hoped  soon  to  drive  those  red-crossed 
foreigners  out  of  his  kingdom.  Should  he  fail,  they  would  en 
by  expelling  the  Duke  of  Mayenne  and  all  the  rest  who  had 
called  them  in,  and  Paris  would  become  the  theatre  of  the 
bloodiest  tragedy  ever  yet  enacted.50  The  king  then  ordered 
Sir  Roger  Williams  to  see  that  a  collation  was  prepared  for  the 
deputies,  and  the  veteran  Welshman  took  occasion  to  indulge 
in  much  blunt  conversation  with  the  guests.  He  informed 
them  that  he,  Mr.  Sackville,  and  many  other  strangers  were 
serving  the  king  from  the  hatred  they  bore  the  Spaniards  and 
Mother  League,  and  that  his  royal  mistress  had  always  8000 
Englishmen  ready  to  maintain  the  cause. 

While ‘the  conferences  were  going  on,  the  officers  and 
soldiers  of  the  besieging  army  thronged  to  the  gate,  and  had 
much  talk  with  the  townsmen.  Among  others,  time-honoured 
La  Noue  with  the  iron  arm  stood  near  the  gate  and 
harangued  the  Parisians.  “We  are  here,”  said  he,  “fije 
thousand  gentlemen ;  we  desire  your  good,  not  your  luin. 
We  will  make  you  rich :  let  us  participate  in  your  labour 
and  industry.  Undo  not  yourselves  to  serve  the  ambition  of 
a  few  men.”  The  townspeople  hearing  the  old  warrior  dis¬ 
coursing  thus  earnestly,  asked  who  he  was.  When  infoimed 
that  it  was  La  Noue  they  cheered  him  vociferously,  and 
applauded  his  speech  with  the  greatest  vehemence.51  Yet  La 
Noue  was  the  foremost  Huguenot  that  the  sun  shone  upon, 
and  the  Parisians  were  starving  themselves  to  death  out  of 

48  De  Them,  ubi  sup.  49  Ibid.  50  Ibid.  51  Lyly’s  letter  before  cited. 


1590. 


STATE  OP  PARIS. 


69  • 

hatred  to  heresy.  After  the  collation  the  commissioners  were 
permitted  to  go  from  the  camp  in  order  to  consult  Mayenne. 

Such  then  wras  the  condition  of  Paris  during  that  memorable 
summer  of  tortures.  What  now  were  its  hopes  of  deliverance 
out  of  this  Gehenna  ?  The  trust  of  Frenchmen  was  in  Philip 
of  Spain,  whose  legions,  under  command  of  the  great  Italian 
chieftain,  were  daily  longed  for  to  save  them  from  rendering 
obedience  to  their  lawful  prince. 

For  even  the  king  of  straw — the  imprisoned  cardinal — was 
now  dead,  and  there  was  not  even  the  effigy  of  any  other 
sovereign  than  Henry  of  Bourbon  to  claim  authority  in 
France.  Mayenne,  in  the  course  of  long  interviews  with  the 
Duke  of  Parma  at  Conde  and  Brussels,  had  expressed  his 
desire  to  see  Philip  king  of  France,  and  had  promised  his 
best  efforts  to  bring  about  such  a  result.  In  that  case  he 
stipulated  for  the  second  place  in  the  kingdom  for  himself, 
together  with  a  good  rich  province  in  perpetual  sovereignty, 
and  a  large  sum  of  money  in  hand.  Should  this  course  not 
run  smoothly,  he  would  be  willing  to  take  the  crown  himself, 
in  which  event  he  would  cheerfully  cede  to  Philip  the  sove¬ 
reignty  of  Brittany  and  Burgundy,  besides  a  selection  ot 
cities  to  be  arranged  for  at  a  later  day.  Although  he  spoke 
of  himself  with  modesty,  said  Alexander,  it  was  very  plain 
that  he  meant  to  arrive  at  the  crown  himself  A  W  ell  had  the 
Bearnese  alluded  to  the  judgment  of  Solomon.  Were  not 
children,  thus  ready  to  dismember  their  mother,  as  foul  and 
unnatural  as  the  mother  who  would  divide  her  child  ? 

And  what  was  this  dependence  on  a  foreign  tyrant  really 
worth  ?  As  we  look  back  upon  those  dark  days  with  the 
light  of  what  was  then  the  almost  immediate  future  turned 
full  and  glaring  upon  them,  we  find  it  difficult  to  exaggerate 
the  folly  of  the  chief  actors  in  those  scenes  of  crime.  Did 
not  the  penniless  adventurer,  whose  keen  eyesight  and  wise 
recklessness  were  passing  for  hallucination  and  foolhardiness 
in  the  eyes  of  his  contemporaries,  understand  the  game  he  was 
playing  better  than  did  that  profound  thinker,  that  mysterious 
62  Parma  to  Philip,  20  May,  1590.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 


70 


Chap.  XXIII. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 

but  infallible  politician,  who  sat  in  the  Escorial  and  made  the 
world  tremble  at  every  hint  of  his  lips,  every  stroke  of  his 
pen  P 

The  Netherlands — that  most  advanced  portion  of  Philip’s 
domain,  without  the  possession  of  which  his  conquest  of 
England  and  his  incorporation  of  France  were  hut  childish 
visions,  even  if  they  were  not  monstrous  chimeras  at  best — 
were  to  be  in  a  manner  left  to  themselves,  while  their  con¬ 
summate  governor  and  general  was  to  go  forth  and  conquei 
France  at  the  head  of  a  force  with  which  he  had  been  in 
vain  attempting  to  hold  those  provinces  to  theii  obedience. 
At  that  very  moment  the  rising  young  chieftain  of  the 
Netherlands  was  most  successfully  inaugurating  his.  career  of 
military  success.  His  armies  well  drilled,  well  disciplined, 
well  paid,  full  of  heart  and  of  hope,  were  threatening  their 
ancient  enemy  in  every  quarter,  while  the  veteran  legions  of 
Spain  and  Italy,  heroes  of  a  hundred  Flemish  and  Frisian 
battle-fields,  were  disorganised,  starving,  and  mutinous.  The 
famous  ancient  legion,  the  terzo  viejo,  had  been  disbanded  foi 
its  obstinate  and  confirmed  unruliness.  The  legion  of  Man- 
rique,  sixteen  hundred  strong,  was  in  open  mutiny  at  Courtray. 
Farnese  had  sent  the  Prince  of  Ascoli  to  negotiate  with  them, 
but  his  attempts  were  all  in  vain.53  Two  years’  arrearages— to 
be  paid,  not  in  cloth  at  four  times  what  the  contractors  had 
paid  for  it,  but  in  solid  gold— were  their  not  unreasonable 
demands  after  years  of  as  hard  fighting  and  severe  suffering 
as  the  world  has  often  seen.  But  Philip,  instead  of  ducats  or 
cloth,  had  only  sent  orders  to  go  forth  and  conquer  a  new 
kingdom  for  him.  Yerdugo,  too,  from  Friesland  was  howling" 
for  money,  garrotting  and  hanging  his  mutinous  veterans 
every  day,54  and  sending  complaints  and  most  dismal  fore¬ 
bodings  as  often  as  a  courier  could  make  his  way  through  the 
enemy’s  lines  to  Farnese’ s  headquarters.  And  Farnese,  on  his 
part,  was  garrotting  and  hanging  the  veterans.55 

53  Parma  to  Philip,  10  April,  1590.  (Arch,  de  Sim.  MS.) 

54  Same  to  same,  24  June,  1590.  (Ibid.) 

55  Same  to  same,  26  June  and  22  July,  1590.  (Ibid.) 


1590.  FALSE  COMPLAINTS  AGAINST  FARNESE.  71 

Alexander  did  not  of  course  inform  his  master  that  he  was 
a  mischievous  lunatic,  who  upon  any  healthy  principle  of 
human  government  ought  long  ago  to  have  been  shut  up 
from  all  communion  with  his  species.  It  was  very  plain,  how¬ 
ever,  from  his  letters,  that  such  was  his  innermost  thought, 
had  it  been  safe,  loyal,  or  courteous  to  express  it  in  plain 
language. 

He  was  himself  stung  almost  to  madness  moreover  by  the 
presence  of  Commander  Moreo,  who  hated  him,  who  was  per¬ 
petually  coming  over  from  France  to  visit  him,  who  was  a 
spy  upon  all  his  actions,  and  who  was  regularly  distilling  his 
calumnies  into  the  ears  of  Secretary  Idiaquez  and  of  Philip 
himself.56  The  king  was  informed  that  Farnese  was  working 
for  his  own  ends,  and  was  disgusted  with  his  sovereign  ;  that 
there  never  had  been  a  petty  prince  of  Italy  that  did  not  wish 
to  become  a  greater  one,  or  that  was  not  jealous  of  Philip's 
power,  and  that  there  was  not  a  villain  in  all  Christendom  hut 
wished  for  Philip’s  death.  Moreo  followed  the  prince  about 
to  Antwerp,  to  Brussels,  to  Spa,  whither  he  had  gone  to 
drink  the  waters  for  his  failing  health,  pestered  him,  lectured 
him,  pried  upon  him,  counselled  him,  enraged  him.  Alexander 
told  him  at  last  that  he  cared  not  if  the  whole  world  came  to 
an  end  so  long  as  Flanders  remained,  which  alone  had  been 
entrusted  to  him,  and  that  if  he  was  expected  to  conquer 
France  it  would  he  as  well  to  give  him  the  means  of  per¬ 
forming  that  exploit.  So  Moreo  told  the  king  that  Alexander 
was  wasting  time  and  wasting  money,  that  he  was  the  cause 
of  Egmont’s  overthrow,  and  that  he  would  he  the  cause  of 
the  loss  of  Paris  and  of  the  downfall  of  the  whole  French 
scheme  ;  for  that  he  was  determined  to  do  nothing  to  assist 
Mayenne,  or  that  did  not  conduce  to  his  private  advantage.57 

Yet  Farnese  had  been  not  long  before  informed  in  suf¬ 
ficiently  plain  language,  and  by  personages  of  great  influ¬ 
ence,  that  in  case  he  wished  to  convert  his  vice-royalty  of 
the  Netherlands  into  a  permanent  sovereignty,  he  might 

56  Moreo  to  Idiaquez,  80  Jan.  1590.  (Arch,  de  Sim.  MS.) 

67  Moreo  to  Philip,  22  June,  1590.  Ibid. 


72  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXIII. 

rely  on  the  assistance  of  Henry  of  Navarre,  and  perhaps,  of 
Queen  Elizabeth.58  The  scheme  would  not  have  been  im¬ 
practicable,  hut  the  duke  never  listened  to  it  for  a  moment. 

If  he  were  slow  in  advancing  to  the  relief  of  starving, 
agonising  Paris,  there  were  sufficient  reasons  for  his  delay. 
Most  decidedly  and  bitterly,  hut  loyally,  did  he  denounce 
the  madness  of  his  master's  course  in  all  his  communications 
to  that  master's  private  ear. 

He  told  him  that  the  situation  in  which  he  found  himself 
was  horrible.  He  had  no  money  for  his  troops,  he  had  not 
even  garrison  bread  to  put  in  their  mouths.  He  had  not  a 
single  stiver  to  advance  them  on  account.  From  Friesland, 
from  the  Bhine  country,  from  every  cjuarter,  cries  of  distiess 
were  rising  to  heaven,  and  the  lamentations  were  just.  He 
was  in  absolute  penury.  He  could  not  negotiate  a  hill  on 
the  royal  account,  hut  had  borrowed  on  his  own  private 
security  a  few  thousand  crowns  which  he  had  given  to  his 
soldiers.  He  was  pledging  his  jewels  and  furniture  like  a 
bankrupt,  hut  all  was  now  in  vain  to  stop  the  mutiny  at 
Courtray.  If  that  went  on  it  would  he  of  most  pernicious 
example,  for  the  whole  army  was  disorganised,  malcontent, 
and  of  portentous  aspect.  “  These  things,"  said  he,  “  ought 
not  to  surprise  people  of  common  understanding,  for  without 
money,  without  credit,  without  provisions,  and  in  an  ex¬ 
hausted  country,  it  is  impossible  to  satisfy  the  claims,  or  .even 
to  support  the  life  of  the  army."59  When  he  sent  the  Flemish 
cavalry  to  Mayenne  in  March,  it  was  under  the  impiession 
that  with  it  that  prince  would  have  maintained  his  reputation 
and  checked  the  progress  of  the  Bearnese  until  greater  rein¬ 
forcements  could  he  forwarded.  He  was  now  glad  that  no 
larger  number  had  been  sent,  for  all  would  have  been  sacri¬ 
ficed  on  the  fatal  field  of  Ivry.60 

The  country  around  him  was  desperate,  believed  itself 
abandoned,  and  was  expecting  fresh  horrors  every  day.  He 

14  March,  24  March,  30  March,  19 
April  1590.  (Arch,  de  Sim.  MS.i 
00  Ibid. 


58  Duplessis  to  Buzanval.  Mem.  et 
Corresp.  de  Duplessis  Mornay,  iv.  270. 

59  Parma  to  Philip,  30  Jan.  20  Feb. 


1590. 


73 


UNREASONABLE  DEMANDS  OF  PHILIP. 

had  been  obliged  to  remove  portions  of  the  garrisons,  at 
Deventer  and  Zntphen  purely  to  save  them  from  starving 
and  desperation.  Every  day  he  was  informed  by  his  garrisons 
that  they  could  feed  no  longer  on  fine  words  or  hopes,  for 

in  them  they  found  no  sustenance.01 

But  Philip  told  him  that  he  must  proceed  forthwith  to 
France,  where  he  was  to  raise  the  siege  of  Paris,  and  occupy 
Calais  and  Boulogne  in  order  to  prevent  the  English,  from 
sending  succour  to  the  Bearnese,  and  in  order  to  facilitate 
his  own  designs  on  England.  Every  effort  was  to  be  made 
before  the  Bearnese  climbed  into  the  seat.  The  Duke  of 
Parma  was  to  talk  no  more  of  difficulties,  but  to  conquer 
them  ; 62  a  noble  phrase  on  the  battle  field,  but  comparatrv  el) 

easy  of  utterance  at  the  writing-desk  ! 

At  last,  Philip  having  made  some  remittances,  miserably 
inadequate  for  the  necessities  of  the  case,  but  sufficient  to 
repress  in  part  the  mutinous  demonstrations  throughout  the 
army,  Farnese  addressed  himself  with  a  heavy  heart  to  the 
work  required  of  him.  He  confessed  the  deepest  apprehen¬ 
sions  of  the  result  both  in  the  Netherlands  and  in  France. 
He  intimated  a  profound  distrust  of  the  French,  who  had 
•ever  been  Philip's  enemies,  and  dwelt  on  the  danger  of 
leaving  the  provinces,  unable  to  protect  themselves,,  badly 
garrisoned,  and  starving.  “It  grieves  me  to  the  soul,  it  cuts 
me  to  the  heart,"  he  said,  “to  see  that  your  Majesty  com¬ 
mands  things  which  are  impossible,  for  it  is  our  Loid  alone 
that  can  work  miracles.  Your  Majesty  supposes  that  with 
the  little  money  you  have  sent  me,  I  can  satisfy  all  the  sol¬ 
diers  serving  in  these  provinces,  settle  with  the  Spanish  and 
the  German  mutineers — because,  if  they  are  to  be  used  in  the 
expedition,  they  must  at  least  be  quieted  give  money  to 
Mayenne  and  the  Parisians,  pay  retaining  wages  (wartgeld) 
to  the  German  Riders  for  the  protection  of  these  provinces, 
and  make  sure  of  the-  maritime  places  where  the  same 
mutinous  language  is  held  as  at  Courtray.  The  poverty,  the 

6i  Parma  to  Philip,  30  Jan.  20  Feb.  14  March,  24  March,  30  March,  19 
April  1590.  (Arch,  de  Sim.  MS.)  ,62  Philip  to  Parma,  20  June,  1590.  Ibid. 


74  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXIII. 

discontent,  and  the  desperation  of  this  unhappy  country,”  he 
added  “have  been  so  often  described  to  your  Majesty  that  I 
have  nothing  to  add.  I  am  hanging  and  garrotting  my 
veterans  everywhere,  only  because  they  have  rebelled  for 
want  of  pay  without  committing  any  excess.  Yet  under  these 
circumstances  I  am  to  march  into  France  with  twenty 
thousand  troops— the  least  number  to  effect  anything  withal. 

I  am  confused  and  perplexed  because  the  whole  world  is 
exclaiming  against  me,  and  protesting  that  through  my 
desertion  the  country  entrusted  to  my  care  will  come  to  utter 
perdition.  On  the  other  hand,  the  French  cry  out  upon  me 
that  I  am  the  cause  that  Paris  is  going  to  destruction,  and 
with  it  the  Catholic  cause  in  France.  Every  one  is  pursuing 
his  private  ends.  It  is  impossible  to  collect  a  force  strong 
enough  for  the  necessary  work.  Paris  has  reached  its  ex¬ 
treme  unction,  and  neither  Mayenne  nor.  any  one  of  the 
confederates  has  given  this  invalid  the  slightest  morsel  to 
support  her  till  your  Majesty’s  forces  should  arrive.”63 

He  reminded  his  sovereign  that  the  country  around  Paris 
was  eaten  bare  of  food  and  forage,  and  yet  that  it  was  quite 
out  of  the  question  for  him  to  undertake  the  transportation  of 
supplies  for  his  army  all  the  way — supplies  from  the  starving 
Netherlands  to  starving  France.  Since  the  king  was  so 
peremptory,  he  had  nothing  for  it  but  to  obey,  but  he  vehe¬ 
mently  disclaimed  all  responsibility  for  the  expedition,  and, 
in  case  of  his  death,  he  called  on  his  Majesty  to  vindicate  his 
honour,  which  his  enemies  were  sure  to  assail.61  _ 

The  messages  from  Mayenne  becoming  daily  moie  pressing, 
Farnese  hastened  as  much  as  possible  those  preparations 
which  at  best  were  so  woefully  inadequate,  and  avowed  his 
determination  not  to  fight  the  Bearnese  if  it  were  possible,  to 
avoid  an  action.  He  feared,  however,  that  with  totally  in¬ 
sufficient  forces  he  should  be  obliged  to  accept  the  chances  of 

an  engagement.65  „ 

With  twelve  thousand  foot  and  three  thousand  horse  Far¬ 


es  Parma  to  Philip,  22  July,  1590.  (Arch,  de  Sim.  MS.) 
64  Ibid.  65  Same  to  same,  23  July,  1590.  Ibid. 


1590. 


EXPEDITION  FOR  THE  RELIEF  OF  PARIS. 


75 


nese  left  tlie  Netherlands  in  the  beginning  of  August,  and 
arrived  on  the  3rd  of  that  month  at  Valenciennes.  His  little 
army,  notwithstanding  his  bitter  complaints,  was  of  imposing 
appearance.66  The  archers  and  halberdiers  of  his  bodyguard 
were  magnificent  in  taffety  and  feathers  and  surcoats  of 
cramoisy  velvet.  Four  hundred  nobles  served  in  the  cavalry. 
Arenberg  and  Barlaymont  and  Chimay,  and  other  grandees 
of  the  Netherlands,  in  company  with  Ascoli  and  the  sons  of 
Terranova  and  Pastrana,  and  many  more  great  lords  of  Italy 
and  Spain  were  in  immediate  attendance  on  the  illustrious 
captain.  The  son  of  Philip's  Secretary  of  State,  Xdiaquez, 
and  the  nephew  of  the  cardinal-legate,  Gaetano,  were  among 
the  marshals  of  the  camp.67 

•  Alexander’s  own  natural  authority  and  consummate  powers 
of  organisation  had  for  the  time  triumphed  over  the  disin¬ 
tegrating  tendencies  which,  it  had  been  seen,  were  everywhere 
so  rapidly  destroying  the  foremost  military  establishment  of 
the  world.  Nearly  half  his  forces,  both  cavalry  and  infantry, 
were  Netherlanders  ;  for  —  as  if  there  were  not  graves 
enough  in  their  own  little  territory — those  Flemings,  Wal¬ 
loons,  and  Hollanders  were  destined  to  leave  their  bones  on 
both  sides  of  every  well-stricken  field  of  that  age  between 
liberty  and  despotism.  And  thus  thousands  of  them  had 
now  gone  forth  under  the  banner  of  Spain  to  assist  their 
own  tyrant  in  carrying  out  his  designs  upon  the  capital  of 
France,  and  to  struggle  to  the  death  with  thousands  of  their 
own  countrymen  who  were  following  the  fortunes  of  the 
Bearnese.  Truly  in  that  age  it  was  religion  that  drew  the 
boundary  line  between  nations. 

The  army  was  divided  into  three  portions.  The  vanguard 
was  under  the  charge  of  the  Netherland  General,  Marquis  of 
Renty.  The  battalia  was  commanded  by  Farnese  in  person, 
and  the  rearguard  was  entrusted  to  that  veteran  Netherlander, 
La  Motte,  now  called  the  Count  of  Everbeck.  Twenty  pieces 
of  artillery  followed  the  last  division.68  At  Valenciennes 


66  Parma  to  Philip,  28  Aug.  1590. 
Ibid. 

67  Bor,  III.  xviii.  535.  Coloma, 


iii.  47.  Bentivoglio,  P.  II.  lib.  iv.  340 
seqq. 

6«  Bor,  Coloma,  ubi  sup .  Dondini, 


Chap.  XXIII. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 

Farnese  remained  eight  days,  and  from  this  place  Count 
Charles  Mansfeld  took  his  departure  in  a  great  rage— resign- 
mg  his  post  as  chief  of  artillery  because  La  Motte  had  re¬ 
ceived  the  appointment  of  general-marshal  of  the  camp 
and  returned  to  his  father,  old  Peter  Ernest  Mansfeld,  who 
was  lieutenant-governor  of  the  Netherlands  in  Parma  s 
absence.69 

Leaving  Valenciennes  on  the  11th,  the  army  proceeded  by 
way  of  Quesney,  Guise,  Soissons,  Fritemilon  to  Meaux.  At 
this  place,  which  is  ten  leagues  from  Paris,  Farnese  made  his 
junction,  on  the  22nd  of  August,  with  Mayehne,  who  was  at 
the  head  of  six  thousand  infantry — one  half  of  them  Ger¬ 
mans  under  Cobalto,  and  the  other  half  French— and  of 
two  thousand  horse.'13 

On  arriving  at  Meaux,  Alexander  proceeded  straightway 
to  the  cathedral,  and  there,  in  presence  of  all,  he  solemnly 
swore  that  he  had  not  come  to  France  in  order  to  conquer 
that  kingdom  or  any  portion  of  it,  in  the  inteiests  of  his 
master,  hut  only  to  render  succour  to  the  Catholic  cause  and 
to  free ’the  friends  and  confederates  of  his  Majesty  from  vio¬ 
lence  and  heretic  oppression.71  Time  was  to  show  the  value 

of  that  oath. 

Here  the  deputation  from  Paris— the  Archbishop  of  Lyons 
and  his  colleagues,  whose  interview  with  Henry  has  just  been 
narrated — were  received  by  the  two  dukes.  They  departed, 
taking  with  them  promises  of  immediate  relief  for  the  starving 
city.  The  allies  remained  live  days  at  Meaux,  and  leaving 
that  place  on  the  27th,  arrived  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Chelles,  on  the  last  day  but  one  of  the  summer.  They  had 
a  united  force  of  five  thousand  cavalry  and  eighteen  thousand 

foot.72 

The  summer  of  horrors  was  over,  and  thus  with  the  liisi 


ii.  300,  seqq.  De  Thou,  t.  lxi.  lib.  97, 
p.  183,  seqq.  Bentivoglio,  P.  II.  lib.  iv. 
340,  seqq.  Meteren,  xvi  293,  seqq. 

159  Letters  of  Mansfeld  to  Philip  and 
to  Parma,  11  Aug.  1590.  (Arch,  de 
Sim.  MS.)  * 

Lo  sucedido  a  este  •felicissimo 


exercito  despues  que  entro  en  Francia 
liasta  el  3  de  Octubre.  Arch,  de  Si- 
mancas  MS.  Parma  to  Philip,  28  Aug. 
1590.  Ibid,  u  Coloma,  hi.  47™. 

72  Lo  sucedido,  &c.,  ubi  sup.  Parma’s 
letter  last  cited. 


1590. 


77 


MEETING  OF  HENRY  AND  FAHNESE. 

days  of  autumn  there  had  come  a  ray  of  hope  for  the  proud 
city  which  was  lying  at  its  last  gasp.  When  the  allies  came 
in  sight  of  the  monastery  of  Chelles  they  found,  themselves  in 
the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  the  Beamese. 

The  two  great  captains  of  the  age  had  at  last  met  face  to 
face.  They  were  not  only  the  two  first  commanders  of  their 
time,  but  there  was  not  a  man  in  Europe  at  that  day  to  be 
at  all  compared  with  either  of  them.  The  youth,  concerning 
whose  earliest  campaign  an  account  will  be  given  in  the  fol¬ 
lowing  chapter,  had  hardly  yet  struck  his  first  blow.  Whether 
that  blow  was  to  reveal  the  novice  or  the  master  was  soon  to 
be  seen.  Meantime  in  1590  it  would  have  been  considered  a 
foolish  adulation  to  mention  the  name  of  Maurice  of  Nassau 
in  the  same  breath  with  that  of  Navarre  or  of  Farnese. 

The  scientific  duel  which  was  now  to  take  place  was  likely 
to  task  the  genius  and  to  bring  into  full  display  the  peculiai 
powers  and  defects  of  the  two  chieftains  of  Europe.  Eacli 
might  be  considered  to  be  still  in  the  prime  of  life,  but  Alex¬ 
ander,  who  was  turned  of  forty-five,  was  already  broken  in 
health,  while  the  vigorous  Henry  was  eight  years  younger, 
and  of  an  iron  constitution.  Both  had  passed  their  lives  in 
the  field,  but  the  king,  from  nature,  education,  and  the  force 
of  circumstances,  preferred  pitched  battles  to  scientific  com¬ 
binations,  while  the  duke,  having  studied  and  ^  practised  his 
art  in  the  great  Spanish  and  Italian  schools  of  warfare,  was 
rather  a  profound  strategist  than  a  professional  fighter,  al- 
•  though  capable  of  great  promptness  and  intense  personal 
energy  when  his  judgment  dictated  a  battle.  Both  were 
born  with  that  invaluable  gift  which  no  human  being  can 
acquire,  authority,  and  both  were  adored  and  willingly  obeyed 
by  their  soldiers,  so  long  as  those  soldiers  were  paid  and  fed. 

The  prize  now  to  be  contended  for  was  a  high  one.  Alex¬ 
ander’s  complete  success  would  tear  from  Henry  s  giasp  the 
first  city  of  Christendom,  now  sinking  exhausted  into  his 
hands,  and  would  place  France  in  the  power  of  the  Holy 
League  and  at  the  feet  of  Philip.  Another  Ivry  would 
shatter  the  confederacy,  and  carry  the  king  in  triumph  to 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIII. 


78 


his  capital  and  his  ancestral  throne.  On  the  approach  of  the 
combined  armies  under  Parma  and  Mayenne,  the  king  had 
found  himself  most  reluctantly  compelled  to  suspend  the 
siege  of  Paris.  His  army,  which  consisted  of  sixteen  thousand 
foot  and  five  thousand  horse,  was  not  sufficiently  numerous 
to  confront  at  the  same  time  the  relieving  force  and  to  con¬ 
tinue  the  operations  before  the  city.73  So  long,  however,  as 
he  held  the  towns  and  bridges  om  the  great  rivers,  and 
especially  those  keys  to  the  Seine  and  Marne,  Corbeil  and 
Lagny,  he  still  controlled  the  life-blood  of  the  capital,  which 
indeed  had  almost  ceased  to  flow. 

On  the  31st  August  he  advanced  towards  the  enemy.  Sir 
31  Aug.  Edward  Stafford,  Queen  Elizabeth's  ambassador,  ar- 
1590.  rived  at  St.  Denis  in  the  night  of  the  30th  August. 
At  a  very  early  hour  next  morning  he  heard  a  shout  under  his 
window,  and  looking  down  beheld  King  Henry  at  the  head  of 
his  troops,  cheerfully  calling  out  to  his  English  friend  as  he 
passed  his  door.  “  Welcoming  us  after  his  familiar  manner/' 
said  Stafford,  “  he  desired  us,  in  respect  of  the  battle  every  hour 
expected,  to  come  as  his  friends  to  see  and  help  him,  and  not 
to  treat  of  anything  which  afore  we  meant,  seeing  the  pre¬ 
sent  state  to  require  it,  and  the  enemy  so  near  that  we  might 
well  have  been  interrupted  in  half-an-hour's  talk,  and  neces¬ 
sity  constrained  the  king  to  be  in  every  corner,  where  for 
the  most  part  we  follow  him."  74  That  day  Henry  took  up 
his  headquarters  at  the  monastery  of  Chelles,  a  fortified  place 
within  six  leagues  of  Paris,  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Marne. 
His  army  was  drawn  up  in  a  wide  valley  somewhat  encum¬ 
bered  with  wood  and  water,  extending  through  a  series  of 
beautiful  pastures  towards  two  hills  of  moderate  elevation. 
Lagny,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  was  within  less  than  a 
league  of  him  on  his  right  hand.  On  the  other  side  of  the 
hills,  hardly  out  of  cannon-shot,  was  the  camp  of  the  allies. 
Henry,  whose  natural  disposition  in  this  respect  needed  no 
prompting,  was  most  eager  for  a  decisive  engagement.  The 

73  De  Thou,  ubi  sup. 

74  Stafford  to  BurgUey,?j^gil,  1590.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.) 


1590.  ANXIETY  FOR  A  DECISIVE  BATTLE.  79 

circumstances  imperatively  required  it  of  him.  .  His  infantry 
consisted  of  Frenchmen,  Netherlander,  English,  Germans, 
Scotch  ;  hut  of  his  cavalry  four  thousand  were  French  nobles, 
serving  at  their  own  expense,  who  came  to  a  battle  as  t-o  a 
banquet,  hut  who  were  capable  of  riding  off  almost  as  rapidly, 
should  the  feast  he  denied  them.  They  were  volunteers, . 
bringing  with  them  rations  for  hut  a  few  days,  and  it  could 
hardly  he  expected  that  they  would  remain  as^  patiently  as 
did  Parma’s  veterans,  who,  now  that  their  mutiny  had  been 
appeased  by  payment  of  a  portion  of  their  arrearages,  had 
become  docile  again.  All  the  great  chieftains  who  sui- 
rounded  Henry,  whether  Catholic  or  Protestant— Montpensier, 
Nevers,  Soissons>  Conti,  the  Birons,  Lavradin,  d  Aumont, 
Tremouille,  Turenne,  Chatillon,  La  Noue  weie  urgent  or 
the  conflict,  concerning  the  expediency  of  which  there  could 
indeed  he  no  doubt,  while  the  king  was  in  raptures  at  the 
opportunity  of  dealing  a  decisive  blow  at  the  confederacy  of 
foreigners  and  rebels  who  had  so  long  defied  his  autlioiitj 

and  deprived  him  of  his  rights. 

Stafford  came  up  with  the  king,  according  to  his  cordial 

invitation,  on  the  same  day,  and  saw  the  army  all  drawn  up 
in  battle  array.  While  Henry  was  “  eating  a  morsel  in  an 
old  house,”  Turenne  joined  him  with  six  or  seven  hundred 
horsemen  and  between  four  and  five  thousand  infantry.  They 
were  the  likeliest  footmen,”  said  Stafford,  a  the  best  coun¬ 
tenanced,  the  best  furnished  that  ever  I  saw  in  my  life  ;  the 
most  part  of  them  old  soldiers  that  had  served  under  the 

king  for  the  Religion  al\  this  while.” 

The  envoy  was  especially  enthusiastic,  however,  in  regard 
to  the  French  cavalry.  u  There  are  near  six  thousand 
horse,”  said  he,  “  whereof  gentlemen  above  four  thousand, 
about  twelve  hundred  other  French,  and  eight  hundred 
reiters.  I  never  saw,  nor  I  think  never  any  man  saw,  in 
France  such  a  company  of  gentlemen  together  so  well 

horsed  and  so  well  armed.”  J 

*  Stafford  to  Burghley,  1590.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.) 


80 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIII. 


Henry  sent  a  herald  to  the  camp  of  the  allies,  formally 
challenging  them  to  a  general  engagement,  and  expressing  a 
hope  that  all  differences  might  now  he  settled  hy  the  ordeal 
of  battle,  rather  than  that  the  sufferings  of  the  innocent 
people  should  he  longer  protracted.76 

Farnese,  on  arriving  at  Meaux,  had  resolved  to  seek  the 
enemy  and  take  the  hazards  of  a  stricken  field.  He  had  mis¬ 
givings  as  to  the  possible  result,  hut  he  expressly  announced 
this  intention  in  his  letters  to  Philip,  and  Mayenne  confirmed 
him  in  his  determination.77  Nevertheless,  finding  the  enemy 
so  eager  and  having  reflected  more  maturely,  he  saw  no 
reason  for  accepting  the  chivalrous  cartel.  As  commander- 
in-chief — for  Mayenne  willingly  conceded  the  supremacy 
which  it  would  have  been  absurd  in  him  to  dispute — he 
accordingly  replied  that  it  was  his  custom  to  refuse  a  combat 
when  a  refusal  seemed  advantageous  to  himself,  and  to  offer 
battle  whenever  it  suited  his  purposes  to  fight.  When  that 
moment  should  arrive  the  king  would  find  him  in  the  field. 
And,  having  sent  this  courteous,  hut  unsatisfactory  answer  to 
the  impatient  Beamese,'8  he  gave  orders  to  fortify  his  camp, 
which  was  already  sufficiently  strong.  Seven  days  long  the 
two  armies  lay  face  to  face— Henry  and  his  chivalry  chafing 
in  vain  for  the  longed-for  engagement — and  nothing  occurred 
between  those  forty  or  fifty  thousand  mortal  enemies,  en¬ 
camped  within  a  mile  or  two  of  each  other,  save  trifling 
skirmishes  leading  to  no  result.79 

At  last  Farnese  gave  orders  for  an  advance.  Renty,  com¬ 
mander  of  the  vanguard,  consisting  of  nearly  all  the  cavalry, 
was  instructed  to  move  slowly  forward  over  the  two  hills,  and 
descending  on  the  opposite  side,  to  deploy  his  forces  in  two 
great  wings  to  the  right  and  left.  He  was  secretly  directed 
in  this  movement  to  magnify  as  much  as  possible  the  ap- 


76  Bor,  Coloma,  Dondini,  De  Tliou, 
Bentivoglio,  Meteren,  ubi  sup. 

77  Parma  to  Pliilip,  28  Aug.  1590. 
(Arch,  de  Sim.  MS.) 

78  Coloma,  Bentivoglio,  De  Thou, 
ubi  sup. 

79  Alexander  estimated  the  forces 


of  Henry  at  14,000  foot  and  5000 
horse.  Stafford  placed  them  at  17,000 
foot  and  6000  horse.  Letters  cited. 
The  united  forces  of  Mayenne  and 
Farnese,  as  we  have  seen,  amounted 
to  18,000  foot  and  5000  horse. 


1590. 


PREPARATION  FOR  ATTACK. 


81 


parent  dimensions  of  his  force.  Slowly  the  columns  moved 
over  the  hills.  Squadron  after  squadron,  nearly  all  of  them 
lancers,  with  their  pennons  flaunting  gaily  in  the  summer 
wind,  displayed  themselves  deliberately  and  ostentatiously  in 
the  face  of  the  Royalists.  The  splendid  light-horse  of  Basti, 
the  ponderous  troopers  of  the  Flemish  hands*  of  ordnance 
under  Chimay  and  Berlaymont,  and  the  famous  Albanian 
and  Italian  cavalry,  were  mingled  with  the  veteran  Leaguers 
of  France  who  had  fought  under  the  Balafre,  and  who  now 
followed  the  fortunes  of  his  brother  Mayenne.  It  was  an 
imposing  demonstration.80 

Henry  could  hardly  believe  his  eyes  as  the  much-coveted 
opportunity,  of  which  he  had  been  so  many  days  disajipointed, 
at  last  presented  itself,  and  he  waited  with  more  than  his 
usual  caution  until  the  plan  of  attack  should  be  developed 
by  his  great  antagonist.  Parma,  on  his  side,  pressed  the  hand 
of  Mayenne  as  he  watched  the  movement,  saying  quietly, 
a  We  have  already  fought  our  battle  and  gained  the  victory/'81 
He  then  issued  orders  for  the  whole  battalia — which,  since 
the  junction,  had  been  under  command  of  Mayenne,  Farnese 
reserving  for  himself  the  superintendence  of  the  entire  army — 
to  countermarch  rapidly  towards  the  Marne  and  take  up  a 
position  opposite  Lagny.  La  Motte,  with  the  rearguard, 
was  directed  immediately  to  follow.  The  battalia  had  thus 
become  the  van,  the  rearguard  the  battalia,  while  the  whole 
cavalry  corps  by  this  movement  had  been  transformed  from 
the  vanguard  into  the  rear.  Renty  was  instructed  to  protect 
his  manoeuvres,  to  restrain  the  skirmishing  as  much  as  pos¬ 
sible,  and  to  keep  the  commander-in-chief  constantly  informed 
of  every  occurrence.  In  the  night  he  was  to  entrench  and 
fortify  himself  rapidly  and  thoroughly,  without  changing  his 
position. 

Under  cover  of  this  feigned  attack,  Farnese  arrived  at  the 
river  side  on  the  15th  September,  1590,  seized  an  15  gept> 
open  village  directly  opposite  Lagny,  which  was  1590- 

Bor,  Coloma,  Bentivoglio,  Dondini,  De  Tliou,  Meteren,  ubi  sup. 

*  .  .  81  Bentivoglio,  loc.  cit. 


VOL.  III. — G 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap  XXIII. 

connected  with  it  by  a  'stone  bridge,  and  planted  a  battery 
of  nine  pieces  of  heavy  artillery  directly  opposite  the  to  . 
Lagny  was  fortified  in  the  old-fashioned  manner,  with  not 
“  thick  walls,  and  without  a  terreplain.  Its  position  how¬ 
ever  and  its  command  of  the  bridge,  seemed  to  render  an 
assault  impossible,  and  De  la  Fin,  who  lay  there  with  a  garrison 
of  twelve  hundred  French,  had  no  fear  for  the  security  of  the 
place.  But  Farnese,  with  the  precision  and  celerity  which 
characterized  his  movements  on  special  occasions,  had  thrown 
pontoon  bridges  across  the  river  three  miles  above,  and  sen  a 
considerable  force  of  Spanish  and  Walloon  mfantry  to  t  it 
other  side.  These  troops  were  ordered  to  hold  themselves 
ready  for  an  assault,  so  soon  as  the  batteries  opposite  should 
effect  a  practicable  breach.  The  next  day  Henry,  recon- 
noitering  the  scene,  saw,  with  intense  indignation  that  he 
had  been  completely  out-generalled.  Lagny,  the  key  to  t  he 
Marne,  by  holding  which  he  had  closed  the  door  on  nearly 
all  the  food  supplies  for  Paris,  was  about  to  be  wrested  fiom 
him  What  should  he  do  ?  Should  he  throw  himself  across 
the  river  and  rescue  the  place  before  it  fell  ?  This  was 
not  to  be  thought  of  even  by  the  audacious  Beninese.  In 
the  attempt  to  cross  the  river,  under  the  enemy  s  fire,  he 
was  likely  to  lose  a  large  portion  of  his  army.  Should 
he  fling  himself  upon  Benty’s  division  which  had  so  osten¬ 
tatiously  offered  battle  the  day  before  P  This  at  least  mig  i 
be  attempted,  although  not  so  advantageously  as  won  d  have 
been  the  case  on  the  previous  afternoon.  To  undertake  this 
was  the  result  of  a  rapid  council  of  generals.  It  was  too  a  e. 
Renty  held  the  hills  so  firmly  entrenched  and  fortified  that 
it  was  an  idle  .  hope  to  carry  them  by  assault.  He  migh 
hurl  column  after  column  against  those  heights,  and  pass  the 
day  in  seeing  his  men  mowed  to  the  earth  without  result. 

His  soldiers,  magnificent  in  the  open  field,  could  not  be 
relied  upon  to  carry  so  strong  a  position  by  sudden  storm, 
and  there  was  no  time  to  be  lost.  He  felt  the  enemy  a  1  e. 
There  was  some  small  skirmishing,  and  while  it  was  §omg 
on,  Farnese  opened  a  tremendous  fire  across  the  river  upon 


1590. 


CAPTURE  OF  LAGNY. 


83 


Lagny.  The  weak  walls  soon  crumbled,  a  breach  was  effected, 
the  signal  for  assault  was  given,  and  the  troops,  posted  on  the 
other  side,  after  a  brief  but  sanguinary  struggle,  overcame  all 
resistance,  and  were  masters  of  the  town.  The  whole  gar¬ 
rison,  twelve  hundred  strong,  was  butchered,82  and  the  city 
thoroughly  sacked  ;  for  Farnese  had  been  brought  up  in  the 
old-fashioned  school  of  Alva  and  Julian  Romero  and  Com¬ 


mander  Requesens.  . 

Thus  Lagny  was  seized  before  the  eyes  of  Henry,  who 
was  forced  to  look  helplessly  on  his  great  antagonist's 
triumph.83  He  had  come  forth  in  full  panoply  and  abounding 
confidence  to  offer  battle.  He  was  foiled  of  his  combat,  and 
he  had  lost  the  prize.  Never  was  blow  more  successfully 
parried,  a  counter-stroke  more  ingeniously  planted.  The 
bridges  of  Charenton  and  St.  Maur  now  fell  into  Farnese's 
hands  without  a  contest.  In  an  incredibly  short  space 
of  time  provisions  and  munitions  were  poured  into  the 
starving  city,  two  thousand  boat-loads  arriving  in  a  single 
day.  Paris  was  relieved.84  Alexander  had  made  his  demon¬ 
stration,  and  solved  the  problem.  He  had  left  the  Nether¬ 
lands  against  his  judgment,  but  he  had  at  least  accomplished 
his  French  work  as  none  but  he  could  have  done  it.  The 
king  was  now  in  worse  plight  than  ever.85  His  army  fell  to 
pieces.  His  cavaliers,  cheated  of  their  battle,  and  having 
neither  food  nor  forage,  rode  off  by  hundreds  every  day. 
u  Our  state  is  such,"  said  Stafford,  on  the  16th  September, 
a  and  so  far  unexpected  and  wonderful,  that  I  am  almost 
ashamed  to  write,  because  me  thinks  everybody  should'  think 


82  Coloma,  loc.  cit. 

83  Coloma,  De  Thou,  Dondini,  Benti- 
voglio,  Meteren,  ubi  sup. 

84  Ibid. 

85  “  I  dare  assure  you  this  king  run¬ 
neth  as  hard  a  fortune  as  ever  he  did 
in  his  life,”  said  Stafford,  adding 
somewhat  cynically,  “  If  with  his  loss 
was  lost  nothing  I  would  care  but 
little,  though  somewhat  for  Chris¬ 
tianity,  but  it  maketh  my  heart  bleed 
to  think  if  the  Spaniard  grow  here  (as 
he  beginneth  to  settle,  and  that  deep- 
lier  than  I  could  ever  have  believed 


Frenchmen’s  hearts  would  have  en¬ 
dured)  what  mischief  will  follow  to  us ; 
and  therefore  in  the  mean  time,  while 
they  may  be  provided  for,  if  there  be 
not  present  order  given  to  send  men 
into  Flanders  to  make  a  present  re¬ 
tractive  for  the  Prince  of  Parma,  I  do 
not  only  doubt,  but  I  do  assure  my 
self  that  we  shall  not  have  leisure  to 
tarry  here,  or  expect  the  good  that  the 
helps  out  of  Germany  may  bring  here¬ 
after.”  Stafford  to  Burghley, 

1590.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.) 


g^_  the  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXIII. 

I  dream.  Myself  seeing  of  it  methinketh  that  I  dream.  For, 
my  lord,  to  see  an  army  such  a  one  I  think  as  I  shall  never 
see  again — especially  for  horsemen  and  gentlemen— to  take 
a  mind  to  disband  upon  the  taking  of  such  a  paltry  thing  as 
Lagny,  a  town  no  better  indeed  than  Rochester,  it  is  a  thing 
so  strange  to  me  that  seeing  of  it  I  can  scarce  believe  it. 
They  make  their  excuses  of  their  want,  which  I  know  indeed 

jg  great _ for  there  were  few  left  with  one  penny  in  their 

purses— hut  yet  that  extremity  could  not  he  such  hut  that 
they  might  have  tarrieh  ten  days  or  fifteen  at  the  most- 

that  the  king  desired  of  them  .  - -  From  six  thousand 

horse  that  we  were  and  above,  we  are  come  to  two  thousand 
and  I  do  not  see  an  end  of  our  leave-takers,  for  those  he  hourly. 

“  The  most  I  can  see  we  can  make  account  of  to  tarry  are 
the  Viscount  Turenne?,s  troops,  and  Monsieur  de  Chatillon  s, 
and  our  Switzers,  and  Lansquenettes,  which  make  very  near 
five  thousand.  The  first  that  went  away,  though  he  sent  word 
to  the  king  an  hour  before  he  would  tarry,  was  the  Count 
Soissons,  by  whose  parting  on  a  sudden  and  without  leave- 

taking,  we  judge  a  discontentment. 

The  king’s  army  seemed  fading  into  air.  Making  virtue 
of  necessity  he  withdrew  to  St.  Denis,  and  decided  to  dis¬ 
band  his  forces,  reserving  to  himself  only  a  flying  camp  with 
which  to  harass  the  enemy  as  often  as  opportunity  should  offer. 

It  must  he  confessed  that  the  Bearnese  had  been  thoroughly 
out-generalled.  “  It  was  not  God’s  will,”  said  Stafford,  who 
had  "been  in  constant  attendance  upon  Henry  through  the 
whole  business  ;  “we  deserved  it  not ;  for  the  king  might  as 
easily  have  had  Paris  as  drunk,  four  or  five  times.  .  Anc 
at  the  last,  if  he  had  not  committed  those  faults  that  children 
would  not  have  done,  only  with  the  desire  to  fight  and  give 
the  battle  (which  the  other  never  meant),  he  had  had  it  m 
the  Duke  of  Parma’s  sight  as  he  took  Lagny  in  ours.  s‘  He 
had  been  foiled  of  the  battle  on  which  he  had  set  his  heart, 
and  in  which  he  felt  confident  of  overthrowing  the.  great 
captain  of  the  age,  and  trampling  the  League  under  his  feet, 

86  Stafford  to  Burghley,^.  Sept.  1590.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.)  87  Ibid. 


1590. 


ATTEMPTED  ESCALADE. 


85 


His  capital  just  ready  to  sink  exhausted  into  his  hands  had 
been  wrested  from  his  grasp,  and  was  alive  with  new  hope 
and  new  defiance.  The  League  was  triumphant,  his  own 
army  scattering  to  the  four  winds.  Even  a  man  of  high 
courage  and  sagacity  might  have  been  in  despair.  Yet  never 
were  the  magnificent  hopefulness,  the'  wise  audacity  of 
Henry  more  signally  manifested  than  now  when  he  seemed 
most  blundering  and  most  forlorn.  His  hardy  nature  ever 
met  disaster  with  so  cheerful  a  smile  as  almost  to  perplex 
disaster  herself. 

Unwilling  to  relinquish  his  grip  without  a  last  effort,  he 
resolved  on  a  midnight  assault  upon  Paris.  Hoping  that  the 
joy  at  being  relieved,  the  unwonted  feasting  which  had  suc¬ 
ceeded  the  long  fasting,  and  the  consciousness  of  security  from 
the  presence  of  the  combined  armies  of  the  victorious  League, 
would  throw  garrison  and  citizens  off  their  guard,  he  came 
into  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Faubourgs  St.  Jacques,  St. 
Germain,  St.  Marcel,  and  St.  Michel  on  the  night  of  9th 
September.  A  desperate  effort  was  made  to  escalade  the 
walls  between  St.  Jacques  and  St.  Germain.  It  was  foiled, 
not  by  the  soldiers  nor  the  citizens,  but  by  the  sleepless 
Jesuits,  who,  as  often  before  during  this  memorable  siege,  had 
kept  guard  on  the  ramparts,  and  who  now  gave  the  alarm  A 
The  first  assailants  were  hurled  from  their  ladders,  the  city 
was  roused,  and  the  Duke  of  Nemours  was  soon  on  the  spot, 
ordering  burning  pitch  hoops,  stones,  and^other  missiles  to  be 
thrown  down  upon  the  invaders.  The  escalade  was  baffled  ; 
yet  once  more  that  night,  just  before  dawn,  the  king  in 
person  renewed  the  attack  on  the  Faubourg  St.  Germain. 
The  faithful  Stafford  stood  by  his  side  in  the  trenches,  and 
was  witness  to  his  cool  determination,  his  indomitable  hope. 
La  Noue  too  was  there,  and  was  -wounded  in  the  leg — an 
accident  the  results  of  which  were  soon  to  cause  much  weep¬ 
ing  through  Christendom.89  Had  one  of  those  garlands  of 
blazing  tar  which  all  night  had  been  fluttering  from  the  walls 

88  “  Acudieron  los  primeros  a  la  muralla  los  padres  Jesuitas,  guiados  por  el 
padre  Francisco  Xuares  Espanol,”  &c.  Coloma,  iii.  51.  89  Meteren,  ubi  sup. 


86 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIII. 


of  Paris  alighted  by  chance  on  the  king’s  head  there  might 
have  been  another  history  of  France.  The  ladders,  too, 
proved  several  feet  too  short,  and  there  were  too  few  of 
them.  Had  they  been  more  numerous  and  longer,  the  tale 
mio-ht  have  been  a  different  one.  As  it  was,  the  king  was 

O 

forced  to  retire  with  the  approaching  daylight.90 

The  characteristics  of  the  great  commander  of  the  Hugue¬ 
nots  and  of  the  Leaguers’  chieftain  respectively  were  well 
illustrated  in  several  incidents  of  this  memorable  campaign. 
Farnese  had  been  informed  by  scouts  and  spies  of  this 
intended  assault  by  Henry  on  the  walls  of  Paris.  With  his 
habitual  caution  he  discredited  the  story.91  Had  he  believed 
it,  he  might  have  followed  the  king  in  overwhelming  force 
and  taken  him  captive.  The  penalty  of  Henry’s  unparalleled 
boldness  was  thus  remitted  by  Alexander’s  exuberant  dis¬ 
cretion. 

Soon  afterwards  Farnese  laid  siege  to  Corbeil.  This  little 
place — owing  to  the  extraordinary  skill  and  determination  of 
its  commandant,  Rigaut,  an  old  Huguenot  officer,  who  had 
fought  with  La  Noue  in  Flanders — resisted  for  nearly  four 
weeks.  It  was  assaulted  at  last,  Rigaut  killed,  the  garrison 
of  one  thousand  French  soldiers  put  to  the  sword,  and  the 
town  sacked.  With  the  fall  of  Corbeil  both  the  Seine  and 
Marne  were  re-opened.92 

Alexander  then  made  a  visit  to  Paris,  where  he  was  received 


90  Coloma,  Bentivoglio,  Dondini,  De 
Thou,  Meteren,  uU  sup.  “  The  king 
to  stay  awhile,  his  troops  together  had 
an  enterprise  on  Paris  this  day 
se’night  at  night,  and,  with  some  in¬ 
telligence  that  he  said  he  had  in  it 
which  I  could  perceive  no  token  of, 
had  an  enterprise  to  take  it  by  esca¬ 
lade,  and  to  that  purpose  had  6000 
footmen  and  1200  horse  that  passed 
the  bridge  that  he  had  made  at 
Gonfolar  with  boats.  The  king  him¬ 
self  was  in  the  enterprise,  and  I  with 
him,  and  in  the  ditch  with  him, 
though  when  he  told  me  the  manner 
I  saw  it  impossible,  yet  I  went  with 
him  because  he  should  not  say  I  was 
against  it  for  fear.  But  when  we  came 
there  our  ladders  were  too  short  by 


five  foot,  the  larme  in  the  town  an 
hour  before  and  no  word  of  any  intel¬ 
ligence,  and  so  we  retired  without 
Paris,  which  I  dare  assure  you  the 
king  might  have  had  about  five  times 
within  these  five  months,  but  he  is  too 
good  a  king,  and  loveth  his  subjects 
too  well  that  hate  him  deadly.  There 
was  upon  the  return  of  that  enterprise 
no  stay,  but  everybody  would  be  gone, 
and  the  king,  seeing  that  there  was 
no  remedy,  gave  them  leave  on  pro¬ 
mise  of  return.”  Stafford  to  Burgli- 

ley,  Sept.  ^  1590.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.) 

91  Coloma,  iii.  51v0. 

92  Coloma,  iii.  51,  seqq.  Bentivog¬ 
lio,  Dondini,  De  Thou,  Meteren,  ubi 
sup. 


1590. 


DEATH  OF  SIXTUS  V. 


87 


with  great  enthusiasm.  The  legate,  whose  efforts  and  whose 
money  had  so  much  contributed  to  the  successful  29  August, 
defence  of  the  capital,  had  returned  to  Italy  to 
participate  in  the  election  of  a  new  pope.  For  the  u  Hugue¬ 
not  pope/'93  Sixtus  V.,  had  died  at  the  end  of  August,  haying 
never  bestowed  on  the  League  any  of  his  vast  accumulated 
treasures  to  help  it  in  its  utmost  need.  It  was  not  surprising 
that  Philip  was  indignant,  and  had  resorted  to  menace  of 
various  kinds  against  the  holy  father,  when  he  found  him 
swaying  so  perceptibly  in  the  direction  of  the  hated  Bearnese. 
Of  course  when  he  died  his  complaint  was  believed  to  be 
Spanish  poison.  In  those  days,  none  hut  the  very  obscure 
were  thought  capable  of  dying  natural  deaths,  and  Philip  was 
esteemed  too  consummate  an  artist  to  allow  so  formidable  an 
adversary  as  Sixtus  to  pass  away  in  God's  time  only.  Cer¬ 
tainly  his  death  was  hailed  as  matter  of  great  rejoicing  by 
the  Spanish  party  in  Borne,  and  as  much  ignominy  bestowed 
upon  his  memory  as  if  he  had  been  a  heretic  ;  while  in  Paris 
his  decease  was  celebrated  with  bonfires  and  other  marks 
of  popular  hilarity.94 

To  circumvent  the  great  Huguenot's  reconciliation  with  the 
Roman  Church  was  of  course  an  indispensable  portion  of 
Philip’s  plan  ;  for  none  could  he  so  dull  as  not  to  perceive 
that  the  resistance  of  Paris  to  its  heretic  sovereign  would 
cease  to  he  very  effective,  so  soon  as  the  sovereign  had  ceased 
to  he  heretic.  It  was  most  important  therefore  that  the  suc¬ 
cessor  of  Sixtus  should  be  the  tool  of  Spain.  The  leading 
confederates  were  well  aware  of  Henry's  intentions  to  renounce 
the  reformed  faith,  and  to  return  to  the  communion  of  Rome 
whenever  he  could  formally  accomplish  that  measure.  The 
crafty  Bearnese  knew  full  well  that  the  road  to  Paris  lay 
through  the  gates  of  Rome.  Yet  it  is  proof  either  of  the  privacy 
with  which  great  public  matters  were  then  transacted,  or  of  the 
extraordinary  powers  of  deceit  with  which  Henry  was  gifted, 


93  << 


:  At  Paris  the  pope  is  accounted 
a  Huguenot.”  Lyly  to  Walsingham, 

April  f2  1590.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.) 


94  Stafford  to  Burgliley,  h  Sept. 

1590.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.)  De  Thou, 
t.  xi.  lib.  97,  pp.  270-273. 


88 


Chap.  XXIII. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


that  the  leaders  of  protestantism  were  still  hoodwinked  m 
regard  to  his  attitude.  Notwithstanding. the  embassy  oi 
Luxembourg,  and  the  many  other  indications  of  the  king  & 
intentions.  Queen  Elizabeth  continued  to  regard  him.  as  the 
great  champion  of  the  reformed  faith.  She  had  just  sent  him 
an  emerald,  which  she  had  herself  worn,  accompanied  by  the 
expression  of  her  \flsh  that  the  king  in  wearing  it  might  never 
strike  a  blow  without  demolishing  an  enemy,  and  that  in  his 
farther  progress  he  might  put  all  his  enemies  to  rout  and 
confusion.  “  You  will  remind  the  king,  too ,”  she  added, 
“  that  the  emerald  has  this  virtue,  never  to  break  so  long  as 

faith  remains  entire  and  firm  .” 93 

And  the  shrewd  Stafford,  who  was  in  daily  attendance  upon 
him,  informed  his  sovereign  that  there  were  no  symptoms  of 
wavering  on  Henry’s  part.  u  The  Catholics  heie,  said  he, 
“  cry  hard  upon  the  king  to  be  a  Catholic  or  else  that  he  is 
lost,  and  they  would  persuade  him  that  for  all  their  calling 
in  the  Spaniards,  both  Paris  and  all  other  towns  will  yield  to 
him,  if  he  will  but  assure  them  that  he  will  become  a  Catholic. 
Eor  my  part,  I  think  they  would  laugh  at  him  when  he  had 
done  so,  and  so  I  find  he  believeth  the  same,  if  he  had  mind 
to  it,  which  I  find  no  disposition  in  him  unto  it.”93  The  not 
very  distant  future  was  to  show  what  the  disposition  of  the  bold 
Gascon  really  was  in  this  great  matter,  and  whether  he  was 
likely  to  reap  nothing  but  ridicule  from  his  apostasy,  should 
it  indeed  become  a  fact.  Meantime  it  was  the  opinion  of  the 
wisest  sovereign  in  Europe,  and  of  one  of  the  most  adroit 
among  her  diplomatists,  that  there  was  really  nothing  in 
the  rumours  as  to  the  king’s  contemplated  conversion. 

It  was,  of  course,  unfortunate  for  Henry  that  his  staunch 
friend  and  admirer  Sixtus  was  no  more.  But  English  diplo¬ 
macy  could  do  but  little  in  Koine,  and  men  were  trembling 
with  apprehension  lest  that  arch-enemy  of  Elizabeth,  that 


95  “  Vous  ferez  souvenir  au  roi  que 
l’esmeraude  a  ceste  vertu  de  ne  point 
rompre  (a  ce  que  Ton  diet)  tant  que  la 
toy  demeure  entiere  et  ferme.”  Queen 
to'  tlie  French  Ambassador,  “  from 
Oatlands,  on  a  Saturday  night,  after 


her  coming  from  hunting.”  18  Aug. 
1590.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.) 

9(i  Stafford  to  Burghley,  b  Sept. 
1590.  Ibid. 


1590. 


ELECTION  OF  A  NEW  POPE. 


89 


devoted  friend  of  Philip,  the  English  Cardinal  Allen,  should 
be  elected  to  the  papal  throne.  “  Great  ado  is  made  in 
Rome,”  said  Stafford,  “by  the  Spanish  ambassador,  by  all 
corruptions  and  ways  that  may  be,  to  make  a  pope  that  must 
needs  depend  and  be  altogether  at  the  King  of  Spain's  devo¬ 
tion.  If  the  princes  of  Italy  put  not  their  hands  unto  it,  no 
doubt  they  will  have  their  wills,  and  I  fear  greatly  our 
villanous  Allen,  .for,  in  my  judgment,  I  can  comprehend  no 
man  more  with  reason  to  be  tied  altogether  to  the  King  of 
Spain's  will  than  he.  I  pray  God  send  him  either  to  God  or  the 
Devil  first.  An  evil-minded  Englishman,  tied  to  the  King  of 
Spain  by  necessity,  finding  almost  four  millions  of  money,  is  a 
dangerous  beast  for  a  pope  in  this  time.''97 

Cardinal  Allen  was  doomed  to  disappointment.  His  candi¬ 
dacy  was  not  ‘  successful,  and,  after  the  brief  reign  thirteen 
days  long — of  Urban  VII.,  Sfondrato  wore  the  triple  tiara 
with  the  title  of  Gregory  XIV.  Before  the  year  closed,  that 
pontiff  had  issued  a  brief  urging  the  necessity  of  extirpating 
heresy  in  France,  and  of  electing  a  Catholic  king,  and  assert¬ 
ing  his  determination  to  send  to  Paris— that  bulwark  of  the 
Catholic  faith — not  empty  words  alone  but  troops,  to  be  paid 
fifteen  thousand  crowns  of  gold  each  month,  so  long  as  the  city 
should  need  assistance.98  It  was  therefore  probable  that  the 
great  leader  of  the  Huguenots,  now  that  he  had  been  defeated 
by  Farnese,  and  that  his  capital  was  still  loyal  to  the  League, 
would  obtain  less  favour — however  conscientiously  he  might 
instruct  himself— from  Gregory  XIV.  than  he  had  begun  to 
find  in  the  eyes  of  Sixtus  after  the  triumph  of  Ivry. 

Parma  refreshed  his  army  by  a  fortnight's  repose,  and  early 
in  November  determined  on  his  return  to  the  Netherlands. 
The  Leaguers  were  aghast  at  his  decision,  and  earnestly 
besought  him  to  remain.  But  the  duke  had  given  them  back 
their  capital,  and  although  this  had  been  accomplished  without 
much  bloodshed  in  their  army  or  his  own,  sickness  was  now 
making  sad  ravages  among  his  troops,  and  there  was  small 
supply  of  food  or  forage  for  such  large  forces  as  had  now  been 
m  MS,  letter  last  cited.  98  Be  Thou,  t.  xi.  lib.  97,  p.  343. 


QQ  the  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXIII. 

accumulated  iu  tlie  neighbourhood  of  Paris.  Moreover,  dis¬ 
sensions  were  breaking  out  between  tbe  Spaniards,  Italians, 
and  Netherlander  of  the  relieving  army  with  their  French 
allies.  The  soldiers  and  peasants  hated  the  foreigners  who 
came  there  as  victors,  even  although  to  assist  the  Leaguers  in 
overthrowing  the  laws,  government,  and  nationality  of  F ranee. 
The  stragglers  and  wounded  on  Farnese’s  march  were  killed 
by  the  country  people  in  considerable  numbers,  and  it  was  a 
pure  impossibility  for  him  longer  to  delay  his  return  to  the 
provinces  which  so  much  against  his  will  he  had  deserted. 

He  marched  back  by  way  of  Champagne  rather  than  by 
that  of  Picardy,  in  order  to  deceive  the  king.  Scarcely  had 
he  arrived  in  Champagne  when  he  heard  of  the  retaking  oi 
Lagny  and  Corbett.  So  soon  as  his  back  was  turned,  the 
League  thus  showed  its  impotence  to  retain  the  advantage 
which  his  genius  had  won.  Corbeil,  which  had  cost  him  a 
month  of  hard  work,  was  recaptured  in  two  days.  Lagny  fell 
almost  as  quickly.  Earnestly  did  the  confederates  implore  him 
to  return  to  their  rescue,  but  he  declined  almost  contemptuously 
to  retrace  his  steps.  His  march  was  conducted  in  the  same  order 
and  with  the  same  precision  which  had  marked  his  advance. 
Henry,  with  his  flying  camp,  hung  upon  his  track,  harassing 
him  now  in  front,  now  in  rear,  now  in  flank.  None  of  the 
skirmishes  were  of  much  military  importance.  A  single 
cavalry  combat,  however,  in  which  old  Marshal  Biron  was 
nearly  surrounded  and  was  in  imminent  danger  of  death  01 
capture,  until  chivalrously  rescued  by  the  king  in  person  at 
the  head  of  a  squadron  of  lancers,  will  always  possess  romantic 
interest."  In  a  subsequent  encounter,  near  Baroges  on  the 
Vesle,  Henry  had  sent  Biron  forward  with  a  few  companies  of 
horse  to  engage  some  fine  hundred  carabineers  of  Farnese  on 
their  march  towards  the  frontier,  and  had  himself  followed 
close  upon  the  track  with  his  usual  eagerness  to  witness  or 
participate  in  every  battle.  Suddenly  Alphonse  Corse,  who 

99  Bentivoglio,  P.  II.  lib.  v.  348,  349.  Dondini,  ii.  363,  seqq.  Coloma,  iii.  52, 
seqq.  Report  of  the  King’s  actions  by  Grimstone,  23-28  Nov.  1590.  (S.  P. 

Office  MS.) 


1590.  RESULT  OF  FARNESE’S  EXPEDITION.  91 

rode  at  Henry’s  side,  pointed  out  to  him,  not  more  than  a 
hundred  paces  off,  an  officer  wearing  a  felt  hat,  a  great  ruff, 
and  a  little  furred  cassock,  mounted  on  a  horse  without 
armour  or  caparisons,  galloping  up  and  down  and  brandishing 
his  sword  at  the  carabineers  to  compel  them  to  fall  back. 
This  was  the  Duke  of  Parma,  and  thus  the  two  gieat  cham¬ 
pions  of  the  Huguenots  and  of  the  Leaguers  the  two  foiemosi 
captains  of  the  age — had  met  face  to  face.110  .At  that  momem 
La  Noue,  riding  up,  informed  the  king  that  he  had  seen  the 
whole  of  the  enemy’s  horse  and  foot  in  battle  array,  and 
Henry,  suspecting  the  retreat  of  Farnese  to  be  a  feint  for  the 
purpose  of  luring  him  on  with  his  small  force  to  an  attack, 

gave  orders  to  retire  as  soon  as  possible.101 

At  Guise,  on  the  frontier,  the  duke  parted  with  Mayenne, 
leaving  with  him  an  auxiliary  force  of  four  thousand  foot  and 
five  hundred  horse,  which  he  could  ill  spare.  He  then  le- 
turned  to  Brussels,  which  city  he  reached  on  the  4th  4  Dec. 
December,  fdling  every  hotel  and  hospital  with  his 
sick  soldiers,  and  having  left  one-third  of  his  numbers  behind 
him.  He  had  manifested  his  own  military  skill  in  the  adroit 
and  successful  manner  in  which  he  had  accomplished  the 
relief  of  Paris,  while  the  barrenness  of  the  result  from  the 
whole  expedition  vindicated  the  political  sagacity  with  which 
he  had  remonstrated  against  his  sovereign’s  infatuation. 

Paris,  with  the  renewed  pressure  on  its  two  great  arteries 
at  Lagny  and  Corbeil,  soon  fell  into  as  great  danger  as  befoie  , 
the  obedient  Netherlands  during  the  absence  of  Farnese  had 
been  sinking  rapidly  to  ruin,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  great 
progress  and  still  greater  preparations  in  aggicssive  warfare 
had  been  made  by  the  youthful  general  and  stadholder  of  the 
Republic.102 

seqq.  Lo  sucedido,  &c.  (Arch,  de 
Sim.  MS.)  Parma  to  Philip,  8  and 
21  Oct.  1590.— Ibid.  Same  to  same, 
19  Nov.  1590.— Ibid.  Same  to  same, 
28  Nov.  1590.— Ibid.  Same  to  same, 
31  Dec.  1590.— Ibid. 


100  Grimstone’s  letter.  MS.  last 
cited.  Compare  Coloma,  Dondini, 
Bentivoglio,  ubi  sup. 

101  Ibid. 

102  Coloma,  Dondini,  Bentivoglio, 
sum  Dp.  Thou.  t.  xi.  lib.  p.  97,  205, 


92 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIV. 


CHAPTER  XX  I Y. 

Prince  Maurice  —  State  of  the  Republican  army— Martial  science  of  the  period 
—  Reformation  of  the  military  system  by  Prince  Maurice  — His. military 
genius — Campaign  in  the  Netherlands — The  fort  and  town  of  Zutphen 
taken  by  the  States’  forces  —  Attack  upon  Deventer  Its  capitulation 
Advance  on  Groningen,  Delfzyl,  Opslag,  Yementil,  Steenwyk,  and  other 
places  —  Farnese  besieges  Fort  Knodsenburg  —  Prince  Maurice  hastens  to 
its  relief —  A  skirmish  ensues  resulting  in  the  discomfiture  of  the  Spanish 
and  Italian  troops  —  Surrender  of  Hulst  and'Nymegen  —  Close  of  military 
operations  of  the  year. 

While  tlie  events  revealed  in  tire  last  chapter  had  been 
occupying  the  energies  of  Farnese  and  the  resouices  01  his 
sovereign,  there  had  been  ample  room  for  I  tince  Maurice  to 
mature  his  projects,  and  to  make  a  satisfactory  beginning  in 
the  field.  Although  Alexander  had  returned  to  the  Nether¬ 
lands  before  the  end  of  the  year  1590,  and  did  not  set  forth 
on  his  second  French  campaign  until  late  in  the  following 
year,  yet  the  condition  of  his  health,  the  exhaustion  of  his 
funds,  and  the  dwindling  of  his  army,  made  it  impossible  for . 
him  to  render  any  effectual  opposition  to  the  piojects  of  the 
youthful  general. 

For  the  first  time  Maurice  was  ready  to  put  his  theories 
and  studies  into  practice  on  an  extensive  scale.  Compaied 
with  modern  armaments,  the  warlike  machinery  to  be  used 
for  liberating  the  republic  from  its  foreign  oppressors  would 
seem  .almost  diminutive.  But  the  science  and  skill  of  a 
commander  are  to  be  judged  by  the  results  he  can  work 
out  with  the  materials  within  reach.  His  progress  is  to  be 
measured  by  a  comparison  with  the  progress  of  his  contem¬ 
poraries — coheirs  with  him  of  what  Time  had  thus  fai 
bequeathed. 

♦  The  regular  army  of  the  republic,  as  reconstructed,  tv  as 


1590.  CONDITION  OF  THE  STATES’  ARMY.  93 

but  ten  thousand  foot  and  two  thousand  horse,  but  it  was  ca¬ 
pable  of  being  largely  expanded  by  the  trainbands  of  the  cities, 
well  disciplined  and  enured  to  hardship,  and  by  the  levies  of 
German  reiters  and  other  foreign  auxiliaries  in  such  numbers 
as  could  be  paid  for  by  the  hard-pressed  exchequer  of  the 
provinces. 

To  the  state-council,  according  to  its  original  constitution, 
belonged  the  levying  and  disbanding  of  troops,  the  conferring 
of  military  offices,  and  the  supervision  of  military  operations 
by  sea  and  land.  It  was  its  duty  to  see  that  all  officers  made 
oath  of  allegiance  to  the  United  Provinces. 

The  course  of  Leicester’s  administration,  and  especially 
the  fatal  treason  of  Stanley  and  of  York,  made  it  seem  im¬ 
portant  for  the  true  lovers  of  their  country  to  wrest  from  the 
state-council,  where  the  English  had  two  seats,  all  political 
and  military  power.  And  this,  as  has  been  seen,  was  prac¬ 
tically  but  illegally  accomplished.  The  silent  revolution  by 
which  at  this  epoch  all  the  main  attributes  of  government 
passed  into  the  hands  of  the  States-General — acting  as  a 
league  of  sovereignties — has  already  been  indicated.  The 
period  during  which  the  council  exercised  functions  conferred 
on  it  by  the  States-General  themselves  was  brief  and  evan¬ 
escent.  The  jealousy  of  the  separate  provinces  soon  prevented 
the  state-council — a  supreme  executive  body  entrusted  with 
the  general  defence  of  the  commonwealth — from  causing 
troops  to  pass  into  or  out  of  one  province  or  another  without 
a  patent  from  his  Excellency  the  Prince,  not  as  chief  of  the 
whole  army,  but  as  governor  and  captain-general  of  Holland, 
or  Gelderland,  or  Utrecht,  as  the  case  might  be. 

The  highest  military  office  in  the  Netherlands  was  that  of 
captain-general  or  supreme  commander.  This  quality  was 
from  earliest  times  united  to  that  of  stadholder,  who  stood,  as 
his  title  implied,  in  the  place  of  the  reigning  sovereign,  whether 
count,  duke,  king,  or  emperor.  After  the  foundation  of  the  Re¬ 
public  this  dynastic  form,  like  many  others,  remained,  and  thus 
Prince  Maurice  was  at  first  only  captain-general  of  Holland 
and  Zeeland,  and  subsequently  of  Gelderland,  Utrecht,  and 


94 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  NXIV. 


Overyssel,  after  lie  had  been  appointed  stadkolder  of  those 
three  provinces  in  1590  on  the  death  of  Count  Nieuwenaar. 
However  much  in  reality  he  was  general-m-chief  of  the 
army,  he  never  in  all  his  life  held  the  appointment  of 

captain-general  of  the  Union. 

To  obtain  a  captain’s  commission  in  the  army,  it  was  neces¬ 
sary  to  have  served  four  years,  while  three  years’  service  was 
the  necessary  preliminary  to  the  post  of  lieutenant  or  ensign. 
Three  candidates  were  presented  by  the  province  for  each 
office,  from  whom  the  stadholder  appointed  one.  The  com¬ 
missions,  except  those  of  the  highest  commanders,  were  made 
out  in  the  name  of  the  States-General,  by  advice  and  consent 
of  the  council  of  state.  The  oath  of  allegiance,  exacted  from 
soldiers  as  well  as  officers,  mentioned  the  name  of  the  particu¬ 
lar  province  to  which  they  belonged,  as  well  as  that  of  the 
States-General.1  It  thus  appears  that,  especially  after 
Maurice’s  first  and  successful  campaigns,  the  supreme  aut  o- 
rity  over  the  army  really  belonged  to  the  States-General,  and 
that  the  powers  of  the  state-council  in  this  regard  fell,  m  the 
course  of  four  years,  more  and  more  into  the  back-ground , 
and  at  last  disappeared  almost  entirely.  During  the  active 
period  of  the  war,  however,  the  effect  of  this  revolution  was 
in  fact  rather  a  greater  concentration  of  military  power  than 
its  dispersion,  for  the  States-General  meant  simply  the  province 
of  Holland.  Holland  was  the  republic. 

keningen  door  Lodewijk  Mulder,  Ka- 
pitein  der  Infanterie.  's  Gravenhage 
Martinus  NyhofF,  1862,  pp.  xlvi.  xlvii. 
All  lovers  of  Dutch  history  must  sin¬ 
cerely  rejoice  that  this  valuable  con¬ 
temporary  manuscript  is  at  last  in 
course  of  publication,  and  that  it  is  in 
the  hands  of  so  accomplished  and  able 
an  editor.  I  am  under  the  deepest 
obligations  to  Captain  Mulder  for  the 
information  derived,  in  regard  to  the 
military  history  of  this  epoch  in  the 
Netherlands, from  his  learned  and  lucid 
introduction,  and  in  drawing  largely 
and  almost  exclusively  from  this  source 
in  the  first  part  of  the  present  chapter, 

thonis  Duyck 7  (l&yi-iwzr.  uuge-  I  desire  to  express  my  than 
geven  op  Last  van  het  Departement  warmest  manner, 
van  Oorlog,  met  Inleiding  en  Aantee- 


1  For  example,  the  oath  for  a 
soldier  of  Holland  was  :  —  I  promise 
and  swear  to  the  States-General  of  the 
United  Netherlands  who  remain  by 
the  Union,  and  by  the  maintenance  of 
the  reformed  religion,  and  also  to  the 
knights,  nobles,  and  regents  (magis¬ 
trates),  of  the  countship  and  province 
of  Holland  representing  the  States  ot 
said  province,  and  therewith  to  the 
States  of  the  other  provinces  in  which 
I  may  be  employed,  and  also  to  the 
regents  of  the  cities  as  well  within  as 
without  the  province  of  Holland  where 
I  may  be  placed  in  garrison  to  be  faith¬ 
ful  and  true.  See  £  J ournaal  van  _  An- 


1590. 


MILITARY  ORGANISATION. 


95 


The  organisation  of  the  infantry  was  very  simple.  The 
tactical  unit  was  the  company.  A  temporary  combination  of 
several  companies  made  a  regiment,  commanded  by  a  colonel 
or  lieutenant-colonel,  but  for  such  regiments  there  was  no 
regular  organisation.  Sometimes  six  or  seven  companies 
were  thus  combined,  sometimes  three  times  that  number,  but 
the  strength  of  a  force,  however  large,  was  always  estimated 
by  the  number  of  companies,  not  of  regiments.2 

The  normal  strength  of  an  infantry  company,  at  the  begin¬ 
ning  of  Maurice's  career,  may  be  stated  at  one  hundred  and 
thirteen,  commanded  by  one  captain,  one  lieutenant,  one 
ensign,  and  by  the  usual  non-commissioned  officers.  Each 
company  was  composed  of  musketeers,  harquebusseers,  pike- 
men,  halberdeers,  and  buckler-men.  Long  after  portable 
firearms  had  come  into  use,  the  greater  portion  of  foot  sol¬ 
diers  continued  to  be  armed  with  pikes,  until  the  introduction 
of  the  fixed  bayonet  enabled  the  musketeer  to  do  likewise  the 
duty  of  pikeman.  Maurice  was  among  the  first  to  appreciate 
the  advantage  of  portable  firearms,  and  he  accordingly  in¬ 
creased  the  proportion  of  soldiers  armed  with  the  musket  in 
his  companies.  In  a  company  of  a  hundred  and  thirteen, 
including  officers,  he  had  sixty-four  armed  with  firelocks  to 
thirty  carrying  pikes  and  halberds.  As  before  his  time  the 
proportion  between  the  arms  had  been  nearly  even,  he  thus 
more  than  doubled  the  number  of  firearms.'3 

Of  these  weapons  there  were  two  sorts,  the  musket  and  the 
harquebus.  The  musket  was  a  long,  heavy,  unmanageable 
instrument.  When  fired  it  was  placed  upon  an  iron  gaffle 
or  fork,  which  the  soldier  carried  with  him,  and  stuck  before 
him  into  the  ground.  The  bullets  of  the  musket  were  twelve 
to  the  pound.4 

The  harquebus — or  hak-bus,  hook-gun,  so  called  because  of 
the  hook  in  the  front  part  of  the  barrel  to  give  steadiness  in 
firing — was  much  lighter,  was  discharged  from  the  hand,  and 
carried  bullets  of  twenty-four  to  the  pound.  Both  weapons 
had  matchlocks.5 

2  Mulder,  Inleiding,  1.  li.  3  Ibid.  li.  lii.  4  Ibid.  liv. 


5  Ibid,  liv.-lix. 


^  the  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap  XXIV. 

The  pike  was  eighteen  feet  long  at  least,  and  pikemen  as 

well  as  kalberdsmen  carried  rapiers.6  . 

There  were  three  buckler-men  to  each  company,  intro- 
duced  by  Maurice  for  tire  personal  protection  of  the  leader  o 
the  company.  The  prince  was  often  attended  by  one  mnse  , 
and,  on  at  least  one  memorable  occasion,  was  indebted  to  this 

shield  for  the  preservation  of  his  life.'  . 

The  cavalry  was  divided  into  lancers  and  carabineers.  I  he 
unit  was  the  squadron,  varying  in  number  from  sixty  to  one 
hundred  and  fifty,  until  the  year  1591,  when  the  regular  com¬ 
plement  of  the  squadron  was  fixed  at  one  hundred  and 

“Ihe  use  of  cavalry  on  the  battle-field  at  that  day,  or  at 
least  in  the  Netherlands,  was  not  in  rapidity  of  motion  nor  m 
severity  of  shock-the  attack  usually  taking  place  on  a  tot 
—Maurice  gradually  displaced  the  lance  m  favour 
carbine.9  His  troopers  thus  became  rather  mounted  infantry 

than  regular  cavalry.  ,  ,  ,  v 

The  carbine  was  at  least  three  feet  long,  with  wheel-locks, 

and  carried  bullets  of  thirty  to  the  pound.'9 

The  artillery  was  a  peculiar  organisation.  It  was  a  gu 
of  citizens,  rather  than  a  strictly  military  force  like  the 
cavalry  and  infantry.  The  arm  had  but  just  begun  to  develope 
itself,  and  it  was  cultivated  as  a  special  trade  by  tie  g«10 
the  holy  Barbara  existing  in  all  the  principal  cities  Thus  a 

municipal  artillery  gradually  organised  itself,  “ 

tion  of  the  gun-masters  (bus-meesters),  who  m  secret  laboured 
at  the  perfection  of  their  art,  and  who  taught  it  to  their  ap¬ 
prentices  and  journeymen,  as  the  princip  es  o  o  ei^  or 
were  conveyed  by  master  to  pupil.  This  system  furnished  a 
powerful  element  of  defence  at  a  period  when  every  city  had 

in  great  measure  to  provide  for  its  own  safety.” 

In  the  earlier  campaigns  of  Maurice  three  lane  s  o  ai  1  ) 

were  used  ;  the  whole  cannon  (kartow)  of  forty-eigh  .  pounds 
the  half-cannon,  or  twenty-four  pounder,  and  the  field-piec 

-  8  Ibid. 

ii  Ibid,  lix.-lxxiv. 


6  Mudler,  liv.-lix. 
io  Ibid. 


7  Ibid. 


o  Ibid. 


1590.  IMPROVEMENTS  IN  MARTIAL  SCIENCE.  97 

carrying  a  ball  of  twelve  pounds.  The  two  first  were  called 
battering  pieces  or  siege-guns.  All  the  guns  were  of  bronze.15 

The  length  of  the  whole  cannon  was  about  .twelve  feet ;  its 
weight  one  hundred  and  fifty  times  that  of  the  ball,  or  about 
seven  thousand  pounds.  It  was  reckoned  that  the  whole 
kartow  could  fire  from  eighty  to  one  hundred  shots  in  an 
hour.  Wet  hair  cloths  were  used  to  cool  the  piece  after  every 
ten  or  twelve  discharges.  The  usual  charge  was  twenty 
pounds  of  powder.13 

The  whole  gun  was  drawn  by  thirty-one  horses,  the  half- 
cannon  by  twenty-three.14 

The  field-piece  required  eleven  horses,  but  a  regular  field- 
artillery,  as  an  integral  part  of  the  army,  did  not  exist,  and 
was  introduced  in  much  later  times.  In  the  greatest  pitched 
battle  ever  fought  by  Maurice,  that  of  Nieuport,  he  had  but 
six  field-pieces.15 

The  prince  also  employed  mortars  in  his  sieges,  from  which 
were  thrown  grenades,  hot  shot,  and  stones  ;  but  no  greater 
distance  was  reached  than  six  hundred  yards.  Bomb-shells 
were  not  often  used  although  they  had  been  known  for  a 
century.16 

Before  the  days  of  Maurice  a  special  education  for  en¬ 
gineers  had  never  been  contemplated.  Persons  who  had 
privately  acquired  a  knowledge  of  fortification  and  similar 
branches  of  the  science  were  employed  upon  occasion,  but 
regular  Corps  of  engineers  there  were  none.  The  prince 
established  a  course  of  instruction  in  this  profession  at  the 
University  of  Leyden,  according  to  a  system  drawn  up  by  the 
celebrated  Stevinus.17 

Doubtless  the  most  important  innovation  of  the  prince,  and 
the  one  which  required  the  most  energy  to  enforce,  was  the 
use  of  the  spade.  His  soldiers  were  jeered  at  by  the  enemy 
as  mere  boors  and  day  labourers  who  were  dishonouring 
themselves  and  their  profession  by  the  use  of  that  implement 
instead  of  the  sword.  Such  a  novelty  was  a  shock  to  all  the 

12  Mulder,  lix.-lxxiv. 

16  Ibid. 

VOL.  III. — H 


13  Ibid.  14  Ibid.  Ibid 

17  Ibid,  Ixxiv.-lxxix. 


98 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


.  Chap.  XXIV. 


military  ideas  of  the  age,  and  it  was  only  the  determination 
and  vigour  of  the  prince  and  of  his  cousin  Lewis .  William 
that  ultimately. triumphed  over  the  universal  prejudice.13 

The  pay  of  the  common  soldier  varied  from  ten  to  twenty 
florins  the  month,  hut  every  miner  had  eighteen  florins,  and, 
when  actually  working  in  the  mines,  thirty  florins  monthly. 
Soldiers  used  in  digging  trenches  received,  over  and  above 
their  regular  pay,  a  daily  wage  of  from  ten  to  fifteen  styvers, 
or  nearly  a  shilling  sterling.10 

Another  most  wholesome  improvement  made  by  the  prince 
was  in  the  payment  of  his  troops.  The  system  prevailing  in 
every  European  country  at  that  day,  by  which  Governments 
were  defrauded  and  soldiers  starved,  was  most  infamous.  The 
soldiers  were  paid  through  the  captain,  who  leceived  the  wages 
of  a  full  company,  when  perhaps  not  one-tliird  of  the  names 
on  the  muster-roll  were  living  human  beings.  Accordingly 
Pyvo- thirds  of  all  the  money  stuck  to  the  offlcei  s  fingeis,  and 
it  was  not  thought  a  disgrace  to  cheat  the  Government  by 
dressing  and  equipping  for  the  day  a  set  of  ragamuffins, 
caught  up  in  the  streets  for  the  purpose,  and  made  to  pass 
muster  as  regular  soldiers.20 

These  passe-volants,  or  scarecrows,  were  passed  freely 
about  from  one  company  to  another,  and  the  indecency  of 
the  fraud  was  never  thought  a  disgrace  to  the  colours  of  the 

company. 

Thus,  in  the  Armada  year,  the  queen  had  demanded  that  a 
portion  of  her  auxiliary  force  in  the  Netherlands  should  be  sent 
to  England.  The  States  agreed  that  three  thousand  of  these 
English  troops,  together  with  a  few  cavalry  companies,  should 
go,  but  stipulated  that  two  thousand  should  remain  in  the 
provinces.  The  queen  accepted  the  proposal,  but  when  the 
two  thousand  had  been  counted  out,  it  appeared  that  there 
was  scarcely  a  man  left  for  the  voyage  to  England.  Yet 
every  one  of  the  English  captains  had  claimed  full  pay  foi 
his  company  from  her  Majesty’s  exchequer.21 


18  Reyd,  ix.  180,  segq . 
20  Ibid,  xciv.  xcv. 


19  Mulder,  ubi  sup. 
21  Ibid,  xeix. 


1590. 


IMPROVEMENTS  IN  MARTIAL  SCIENCE. 


99 


Against  this  tide  of  peculation  and  corruption  the 
strenuous  Maurice  set  himself  with  heart  and  soul,  and  there 
is  no  doubt  that  to  his  reformation  in  this  vital  matter  much 
of  his  military  success  was  owing.  It  was  impossible  that 
roguery  and  venality  should  ever  furnish  a  solid  foundation 
for  the  martial  science. 

To  the  student  of  military  history  the  campaigns  and  sieges 
of  Maurice,  and  especially  the  earlier  ones,  are  of  great  im¬ 
portance.  There  is  no  doubt  whatever,  that  the  youth  who 
now,  after  deep  study  and  careful  preparation,  was  measuring 
himself  against  the  first  captains  of  the  age,  was  founding  the 
great  modern  school  of  military  science.  It  was  in  this 
Netherland  academy,  and  under  the  tuition  of  its  consummate 
profbssor,  that  the  commanders  of  the  seventeenth  century 
not  only  acquired  the  rudiments,  but  perfected  themselves 
in  the  higher  walks  of  their  art.  Therefore  the  siege  opera¬ 
tions,  in  which  all  that  had  been  invented  by  modern  genius, 
or  rescued  from  the  oblivion  which  had  gathered  over  ancient 
lore  during  the  morer  vulgar  and  commonplace  practice  of 
the  mercenary  commanders  of  the  day  was  brought  into  suc¬ 
cessful  application,  must  always  engage  the  special  attention 
of  the  military  student. 

To  the  general  reader,  more  interested  in  marking  the 
progress  of  civilisation  and  the  advance  of  the  people  in 
the  path  of  development  and  true  liberty,  the  spectacle  of  the 
young  stadholder’s  triumphs  has  an  interest  of  another  kind. 
At  the  moment  when  a  thorough  practical  soldier  was  most 
needed  by  the  struggling  little  commonwealth,  to  enable  it 
to  preserve  liberties  partially  secured  by  its  unparalleled  sacri¬ 
fices  of  blood  and  treasure  during  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and 
to  expel  the  foreign  invader  from  the  soil  which  he  had  so 
long  profaned,  it  was  destined  that  a  soldier  should  appear. 

Spade  in  hand,  with  his  head  full  of  Roman  castrametation 
and  geometrical  problems,  a  prince,  scarce  emerged  from  boy¬ 
hood,  presents  himself  on  that  stage  where  grizzled  Mansfelds, 
drunken  Hohenlos,  and  truculent  Verdugos  have  been  so  long 
enacting  that  artless  military  drama  which  consists  of  hard 


100 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIY. 


knocks  and  wholesale  massacres.  The  novice  is  received 
with  universal  hilarity.  But  although  the  machinery  of  war 
varies  so  steadily  from  age  to  age  that  a  commonplace 
commander  of  to-day,  rich  in  the  spoils  of  preceding  time, 
might  vanquish  the  Alexanders,  and  Cassars,  and  Frederics, 
with  their  antiquated  enginry,  yet  the  moral  stuff  out  of 
which  great  captains,  great  armies,  great  victories  are  created, 
is  the  simple  material  it  was  in  the  days  of  Sesostris  or 
Cyrus.  The  moral  and  physiological  elements  remain 
essentially  the  same  as  when  man  first  began  to  walk  up  and 
down  the  earth  and  destroy  his  fellow-creatures. 

To  make  an  army  a  thorough  mowing-machine,  it  then 
seemed  necessary  that  it  should  be  disciplined  into  complete 
mechanical  obedience.  To  secure  this,  prompt  payment  of 
wages  and  inexorable  punishment  of  delinquencies  were  in¬ 
dispensable.  Long  arrearages  were  now  converting  Farnese's 
veterans  into  systematic  marauders  ;  for  unpaid  soldiers  in 
every  age  and  country  have  usually  degenerated  into  high¬ 
waymen,  and  it  is  an  impossibility  for  a  sovereign,  with 
the  strictest  intentions,  to  persist  in  starving  his  soldiers 
and  in  killing  them  for  feeding  themselves.  In  Maurice's 
little  army,  on  the  contrary,  there  were  no  back- wages  and 
no  thieving.  At  the  siege  of  Delfzyl  Maurice  hung  two  of 
his  soldiers  for  stealing,  the  one  a  hat  and  the  other  a  j^oniard, 
from  the  townsfolk,  after  the  place  had  capitulated.22  At  the 
siege  of  Hulst  he  ordered  another  to  be  shot,  before  the  whole 
camp,  for  robbing  a  woman.23  This  seems  sufficiently  harsh, 
but  war  is  not  a  pastime  nor  a  very  humane  occupation.  The 
result  was,  that  robbery  disappeared,  and  it  is  better  for  all 
that  enlisted  men  should  be  soldiers  rather  than  thieves.  To 
secure  the  ends  which  alone  can  justify  war — and  if  the 
Netherlanders  engaged  in  defending  national  existence  and 
human  freedom  against  foreign  tyranny  were  not  justifiable 
then  a  just  war  has  never  been  waged — a  disciplined  army 
is  vastly  more  humane  in  its  operations  than  a  band-  of 
brigands.  Swift  and  condign  punishments  by  the  law-martial, 

22  Rej^d,  ix.  171.  23  Vr.n  der  Kemp,  112. 


1590.  IMPROVEMENTS  IN  MARTIAL  SCIENCE.  101 

for  even  trifling  offences,  is  the  best  means  of  discipline  yet 
devised. 

To  bring  to  utmost  perfection  the  machinery  already  in 
existence,  to  encourage  invention,  to  ponder  the  past  with  a 
practical  application  to  the  present,  to  court  fatigue,  to  scorn 
pleasure,,  to  concentrate  the  energies  on  the  work  in  hand,  to 
cultivate  quickness  of  eye  and  calmness  of  nerve  in  the  midst  of 
danger,  to  accelerate  movements,  to  economise  blood  even  at 
the  expense  of  time,  to  strive  after  ubiquity  and  omniscience 
in  the  details  of  person  and  place,  these  were  the  charac¬ 
teristics  of  Maurice,  and  they  have  been  the  prominent  traits 
of  all  commanders  who  have  stamped  themselves  upon  their 
age.  Although  his  method  of  war-making  differed  as  far  as 
possible  from  that  of  the  Bearnese,  yet  the  two  had  one 
quality  in  common,  personal  insensibility  to  fear.  But  in 
the  case  of  Henry,  to  confront  danger  for  its  own  sake  was 
in  itself  a  pleasure,  while  the  calmer  spirit  of  Maurice  did 
not  so  much  seek  the  joys  of  the  combat  as  refuse  to  desist 
from  scientific  combinations  in  the  interests  of  his  personal 
safety.  Very  frequently,  in  the  course  of  his  early  campaigns, 
the  prince  was  formally  and  urgently  requested  by  the  States- 
General  not  to  expose  his  life  so  recklessly,  and  before  he  had 
passed  his  twenty-fifth  year  he  had  received  wounds  which, 
but  for  fortunate  circumstances,  would  have  proved  mortal, 
because  he  was  unwilling  to  leave  special  operations  on  which 
much  was  depending  to  other  eyes  than  his  own.  The  details 
of  his  campaigns  are,  of  necessity,  the  less  interesting  to 
a  general  reader  from  their  very  completeness.  Desultory 
or  semi-civilised  warfare,  where  the  play  of  the  human  passions 
is  distinctly  visible,  where  individual  man,  whether  in  buff 
jerkin  or  Milan  coat  of  proof,  meets  his  fellow  man  in  close 
mortal  combat,  where  men  starve  by  thousands  or  are  massa¬ 
cred  by  town-fulls,  where  hamlets  or  villages  blaze  throughout 
whole  districts  or  are  sunk  beneath  the  ocean — scenes  of  rage, 
hatred,  vengeance,  self-sacrifice,  patriotism,  where  all  the 
virtues  and  vices  of  which  humanity  is  capable  stride  to  and 
fro  in  their  most  violent  colours  and  most  colossal  shape — 


102  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXIV. 

where  man  in  a  moment  rises  almost  to  divinity,  or  sinks 
beneath  the  beasts  of  the  field — such  tragical  records  of  which 
the  sanguinary  story  of  mankind  is  full — and  no  portion  of 
them  more  so  than  the  Netherland  chronicles — appeal  more 
vividly  to  the  imagination  than  the  neatest  solution  of 
mathematical  problems.  Yet,  if  it  be  the  legitimate  end 
oi  military  science  to  accomplish  its  largest  purposes  at  the 
least  expense  of  human  suffering  ;  if  it  be  progress  in  civili¬ 
sation  to  acquire  by  scientific  combination  what  might  be 
otherwise  attempted,  and  perhaps  vainly  attempted,  by  in¬ 
finite  carnage,  then  is  the  professor  with  his  diagrams,  standing 
unmoved  amid  danger,  a  more  truly  heroic  image  than  Coeur- 
de-Lion  with  his  battle-axe  or  Alva  with  his  truncheon. 

The  system — then  a  new  one — which  Maurice  introduced  to 
sustain  that  little  commonwealth  from  sinking  of  which  he 
had  become  at  the  age  of  seventeen  the  predestined  chief, 
was  the  best  under  the  circumstances  that  could  have  been 
devised.  Patriotism  the  most  passionate,  the  most  sublime, 
had  created  the  republic.  To  maintain  its  existence 
against  perpetual  menace  required  the  exertion  of  perpe¬ 
tual  skill. 

Passionless  as  algebra,  the  genius  of  Maurice  was  ready  for 
the  task.  Strategic  points  of  immense  value,  important  cities 
and  fortresses,  vital  river-courses  and  communications — which 
foreign  tyranny  had  acquired  during  the  tragic  past  with  a 
patient  iniquity  almost  without  a  parallel,  and  which 
patriotism  had  for  years  vainly  struggled  to  recover — were 
the  earliest  trophies  and  prizes  of  his  art.  But  the  details  of 
his  victories  may  be  briefly  indicated,  for  they  have  none 
of  the  picturesqueness  of  crime.  The  sieges  of  Naarden 
Harlem,  Leyden,  were  tragedies  of  maddening  interest,  but 
the  recovery  of  Zutphen,  Deventer,  Nymegen,  Groningen, 
and  many  other  places — -all  important  though  they  were — 
was  accomplished  with  the  calmness  of  a  consummate  player, 
who  throws  down  on  the  table  the  best  half  dozen  invincible 
cards  which  it  thus  becomes  superfluous  to  play. 

There  were  several  courses  open  to  the  prince  before  taking 


/ 


1590.  MILITARY  GENIUS  OF  PRINCE  MAURICE.  103 

<  * 

the  field.  It  was  desirable  to  obtain  control  of  the  line  of  the 
Waal,  by  which  that  heart  of  the  republic — Holland — would 
be  made  entirely  secure.  To  this  end,  Gertruydenberg — 
lately  surrendered  to  the  enemy  by  the  perfidy  of  the  English¬ 
man  Wingfield,  to  whom  it  had  been  entrusted — Bois  lc  Due, 
and  Nymegen  were  to  be  wrested  from  Spain. 

It  was  also  important  to  hold  the  Yssel,  the  course  of  which 
river  led  directly  through  the  United  Netherlands,  quite  to 
the  Zuyder  Zee,  cutting  off  Friesland,  Groningen,  and  Gel- 
derland  from  their  sister  provinces  of  Holland  and  Zeeland. 
And  here  again  the  keys  to  this  river  had  been  lost  by 
English  treason.  The  fort  of  Zutphen  and  the  city  of 
Deventer  had  been  transferred  to  the  Spaniard  by  Roland 
York  and  Sir  William  Stanley,24  in  whose  honour  the 
republic  had  so  blindly  confided,  and  those  cities  it  was  now 
necessary  to  reduce  by  regular  siege  before  the  communica¬ 
tions  between  the  eastern  and  western  portions  of  the  little 
commonwealth  could  ever  be  established. 

Still  farther  in  the  ancient  Frisian  depths,  the  memorable 
treason  of  that  native  Netherlander,  the  high-born  Renneberg, 
had  opened  the  way  for  the  Spaniard’s  foot  into  the  city  of 
Groningen.  Thus  this  whole  important  province — with  its 
capital — long  subject  to  the  foreign  oppressor,  was  garrisoned 
with  his  troops. 

Yerdugo,  a  veteran  officer  of  Portuguese  birth,  who  had 
risen  from  the  position  of  hostler25  to  that  of  colonel  and 
royal  stadholder,  commanded  in  Friesland.  He  had  in  vain 
demanded  reinforcements  and  supplies  from  Farnese,  who 
most  reluctantly  was  obliged  to  refuse  them  in  order  that  he 
might  obey  his  master’s  commands  to  neglect  everything  for 
the  sake  of  the  campaign  in  France. 

And  Yerdugo,-  stripped  of  all  adequate  forces  to  protect  his 
important  province,  was  equally  destitute  of  means  for  feeding 
the  troops  that  were  left  to  him.  “  I  hope  to  God  that  I  may  . 
do  my  duty  to  the  king  and  your  Highness,”  he  cried,  u  but  I 
find  myself  sold  up  and  pledged  to  such  an  extent  that  I  am 
21  Yol  II.  of  this  work,  chap.  xiii.  25  Reyd,  ix.  172. 


104 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVI. 


poorer  than  when  I  was  a  soldier  at  four  crowns  a  month. 
And  everybody  in  the  town  is  as  desperate  as  myself/' 23 
Maurice,  after  making  a  feint  of  attacking  Gertruydenberg 
and  Bois  le  Due,  so  that  Farnese  felt  compelled,  with  consider¬ 
able  difficulty,  to  strengthen  the  garrison  of  those  places, 
came  unexpectedly  to  Arnhem  with  a  force  of  nine  thousand 
foot  and  sixteen  hundred  horse.  He  had  previously  and  with 
great  secrecy  sent  some  companies  of  infantry  under  Sir 
Francis  Yere  to  Doesburg. 

On  the  23rd  May  (1591)  live  peasants  and  six  peasant 
23  May,  women  made  their  appearance  at  dawn  of  day  before 
1591-  the  chief  guard-house-  of  the  great  fort  in  the  Bad- 
meadow  (Yel-uwe),  opposite  Zutjjhen,  on  the  west  side  of  the 
Yssel.  It  was  not  an  unusual  occurrence.  These  boors  and 
their  wives  had  brought  baskets  of  eggs,  butter,  and  cheese, 
for  the  garrison,  and  they  now  set  themselves  quietly  down 
on  the  ground  before  the  gate,  waiting  for  the  soldiers  of  the 
garrison  to  come  out  and  traffic  with  them  for  their  supplies. 
Yery  soon  several  of  the  guard  made  their  appearance,  and 
began  to  chaffer  with  the  peasants,  when  suddenly  one  of  the 
women  plucked  a  pistol  from  under  her  petticoats  and  shot 
dead  the  soldier  who  was  cheapening  her  eggs.  The  rest  of 
the  party,  transformed  in  an  instant  from  boors  to  soldiers, 
then  sprang  upon  the  rest  of  the  guard,  overpowered  and 
bound  them,  and  took  possession  of  the  gate.  A  considerable 
force,  which  had  been  placed  in  ambush  by  Prince  Maurice 
near  the  spot,  now  rushed  forward,  and  in  a  few  minutes  the 
great  fort  of  Zutphen  was  mastered  by  the  States'  forces  with¬ 
out  loss  of  a  man.  It  was  a  neat  and  perfectly  successful 
stratagem.27 

Next  day  Maurice  began  the  regular  investment  of  the 
24  May  ^1G  26th,  Count  Lewis*-  William  arrived 

with  some  Frisian  companies.  On  the  27th, 
Maurice  threw  a  bridge  of  boats  from  the  Bad-meadow  side, 
across  the  river  to  the  Weert  before  the  city.  On  the  28th 

26  Groen  v.  Prinsterer.  (Archives,  &c.,  II.  Serie  i.  128.) 

27  Meteren,  xv.  298.  Bor  III.  xxviii.  5G0,  5G2. 


1591. 


FORT  OF  ZUTPHEN  TAKEN. 


105 


he  had  got  batteries,  mounting  thirty-two  guns,  into  position, 
commanding  the  place  at  three  points.  On  the  30th 
the  town  capitulated.  Thus  within  *  exactly  one  °°  May‘ 
week  from  the  firing  of  the  pistol  shot  by  the  supposed 
hutterwoman,  this  fort  and  town,  which  had  so  long  resisted 
the  efforts  of  the  States,  and  were  such  important  possessions 
of  the  Spaniards,  fell  into  the  hands  of  Maurice.  The  terms 
of  surrender  were  easy.  The  city  being  more  important  than 
its  garrison,  the  soldiers  were  permitted  to  depart  with  bag 
and  baggage.  The  citizens  were  allowed  three  days  to 
decide  whether  to  stay  under  loyal  obedience  to  the  States- 
General,  or  to  take  their  departure.  Those  who  chose  to 
remain  were  to  enjoy  all  the  privileges  of  citizens  of  the 
United  Provinces.28 

But  very  few  substantial  citizens  were  left,  for  such  had 
been  the  tyranny,  the  misery,  and  the  misrule  during  the 
long  occupation  by  a  foreign  soldiery  of  what  was  once  a 
thriving  Dutch  town,  that  scarcely  anybody  but  paupers 
and  vagabonds  were  left.  One  thousand  houses  were  ruined 
and  desolate.  It  is  sivperfluous  to  add  that  the  day  of  its 
restoration  to  the  authority  of  the  Union  was  the  beginning 
of  its  renewed  prosperity. 

Maurice,  having  placed  a  national  garrison  in  the  place, 
marched  the  same  evening  straight  upon  Deventer,  seven 
miles  farther  down  the  river,  without  pausing  to 
sleep  upon  his  victory.  His  artillery  and  munitions  *  May ' 
were  sent  rapidly  down  the  Yssel. 

Within  five  days  he  had  thoroughly  invested  the  city,  and 
brought  twenty-eight  guns  to  bear  upon  the  weakest  part 
of  its  defences. 

It  was  a  large,  populous,  well-built  town,  once  a  wealthy 
member  of  the  Hanseatic  League,  full  of  fine  build¬ 
ings,  both  public  and  private,  the  capital  of  the  rich  and 
fertile  province  of  Overyssel,  and  protected  by  a  strong  wall 
and  moat — as  well-fortified  a  place  as  could  be  found 
in  the  Netherlands.29  The  garrison  consisted  of  fourteen 
28  Bor,  Meteren,  ubi  sup.  Duyck,  6-14.  29  Guicciardini,  in  voce. 


106 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Ciiap.  XXIV. 


hundred  Spaniards  and  Walloons,  under  the  command  of 
Count  Herman  van  den  Borg,  first  cousin  of  Prince  Maurice. 

No  sooner  had  the'  States  army  come  before  the  city  than 
a  Spanish  captain  observed — “We  shall  now  have  a  droll 
siege — cousins  on  the  outside,  cousins  on  the  inside.  There 
will  he  a  sham  fight  or  two,  and  then  the  cousins  will  make 
it  up,  and  arrange  matters  to  suit  themselves/'30 

Such  hints  had  deeply  wounded  Van  den  Berg,  who  was  a 
fervent  Catholic,  and  as  loyal  a  servant  to  Philip  II.  as  he 
could  have  been,  had  that  monarch  deserved,  by  the  laws  of 
nature  and  by  his  personal  services  and  virtues,  to  govern  all 
the  swamps  of  Friesland.  He  slept  on  the  gibe,  having 
ordered  all  the  colonels  and  captains  of  the  garrison  to  attend 
at  solemn  mass  in  the  great  church  the  next  morning.  He 
there  declared  to  them  all  publicly  that  he  felt  outraged  at 
the  suspicions  concerning  his  fidelity,  and  after  mass  he  took 
the  sacrament,  solemnly  swearing  never  to  give  up  the  city 
or  even  to  speak  of  it  until  he  had  made  such  resistance  that 
he  must  he  carried  from  the  breach.  So  long  as  he  could 
stand  or  sit  he  would  defend  the  city  entrusted  to  his  care.31 

The  whole  council  who  had  come  from  Zutphen  to  Maurice's 
camp  were  allowed  to  deliberate  concerning  the  siege.  The 
enemy  had  been  seen  hovering  about  the  neighbourhood  in 
considerable  numbers,  but  had  not  ventured  an  attempt  to 
throw  reinforcements  into  the  place.  Many  of  the  counsellors 
argued  against  the  siege.  It  was  urged  that  the  resistance 
would  be  determined  and  protracted,  and  that  the  Duke  of 
Parma  was  sure  to  take  the  field  in  person  to  relieve  so  im¬ 
portant  a  city,  before  its  reduction  could  be  effected. 

But  Maurice  had  thrown  a  bridge  across  the  Yssel  above 
and  another  below  the  town,  had  carefully  and  rapidly  taken 
measures  in  the  success  of  which  he  felt  confident,  and  now 
declared  that  it  would  be  cowardly  and  shameful  to  abandon 
an  enterprise  so  well  begun. 

The  city  had  been  formally  summoned  to  surrender,  and  a 
calm  but  most  decided  refusal  had  been  returned. 

30  Reyd,  ix.  169. 


3i  Ibid. 


1591.  ATTACK  ON  DEVENTER.  107 


On  tlie  9  th  June  the  batteries  begun  playing,  and  after 
four  thousand  six  hundred  shots  a  good  breach  had  9  Jane, 
been  effected  in  the  defences  along  the  Kaye — an  1591. 
earthen  work  lying  between  two  strong  walls  of  masonry. 

The  breach  being  deemed  practicable,  a  storm  was  ordered. 
To  reach  the  Kaye  it  was  necessary  to  cross  a  jnece  of  water 
called  the  Haven,  over  which  a  pontoon  bridge  was  hastily 
thrown.  There  was  now  a  dispute  among  the  English,  Scotch, 
and  Netherlanders  for  precedence  in  the  assault.  It  was 
ultimately  given  to  the  English,  in  order  that  the  bravery  of 
that  nation  might  now  on  the  same  spot  wipe  out  the  disgrace 
inflicted  upon  its  name  by  the  treason  of  Sir  William  Stanley. 
The  English  did  their  duty  well  and  rushed  forward  merrily, 
but  the  bridge  proved  too  short.  Some  sprang  over  and 
pushed  boldly  for  the  breach.  Some  fell  into  the  moat 
and  were  drowned.  Others,  sustained  by  the  Netherlanders 
under  Solms,  Meetkerke,  and  Brederode,  effected  their 
passage  by  swimming,  leaping,  or  wading,  so  that  a  resolute 
attack  was  made.  Herman  van  den  Berg  met  them  in 
the  breach  at  the  head  of  seven  companies.  The  defenders 
were  most  ferocious  in  their  resistance.  They  were  also 
very  drunk.  The  count  had  placed  many  casks  of  Rhenish 
and  of  strong  beer  within  reach,  and  ordered  his  soldiers  to 
drink  their  fill  as  they  fought.52  He  was  himself  as  vigorous 
in  his  potations  as  he  was  chivalrous  with  sword  and  buckler. 
Two  pages  and  two  lieutenants  fell  at  his  side,  but  still  he 
fought  at  the  head  of  his  men  with  a  desperation  worthy  of 
his  vow,  until  he  fell  wounded  in  the  eye  and  was  carried 
from  the  place.  Notwithstanding  this  disaster  to  the  com¬ 
mander  of  the  town,  the  assailants  were  repulsed,  losing  two 
hundred  and  twenty-five  in  killed  and  wounded — Colonel 
Meetkerke  and  his  brother,  two  most  valuable  Dutch  officers, 
among  them.33 


32  Revd  ix  1 99 

33  Ibid.  ’  Bor,  III.  xxviii.  563,  564. 
Meteren,  xvi.  298.  Duyck,  20,  21. 
Colonel  Nicolas  Meetkerke  died  of  liis 
wounds  in  this  assault.  He  was  less 
than  thirty  years  of  age,  hut  already  a 


veteran  soldier,  and  had  distinguished 
himself  in  the  English-Dutcli  expedi¬ 
tion,  under  Essex,  against  Portugal  in 
1587.  His  elder  brother  Antony  had 
been  killed  before  Zutphen  fort  in 
1586.  His  two  younger  brothers 


108  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXIV. 

During  the  whole  of  the  assault/ a  vigorous  cannonade  had 
been  kept  up  upon  other  parts  of  the  town,  and  houses  and 
church-towers  were  toppling  down  in  all  directions.  Mean¬ 
while  the  inhabitants — for  it  was  Sunday — instead  of  going  to 
service  were  driven  towards  the  breach  by  the  serjeant-major, 
a  truculent  Spaniard,  next  in  command  to  Man  den  Derg,  who 
ran  about  the  place  with  a  great  stick,  summoning  the  Dutch 
burghers  to  assist  the  Spanish  garrison  on  the  wall.34  It  was 
thought  afterwards  that  this  warrior  would  have  been  better 
occupied  among  the  soldiers,  at  the  side  of  his  commander. 

A  chivalrous  incident  in  the  open  field  occurred  during  the 
assault.  A  gigantic  Albanian  cavalry  officer  came  prancing 
out  of  Deventer  into  the  spaces  between  the  trenches,  defying 
any  officer  in  the  States'’  army  to  break  a  lance  with  him 
Prince  Maurice  forbade  any  accordance  of  the  challenge,  but 
Lewis  van  der  Cathulle,  son  of  the  famous  Eyhove  of  Ghent, 
unable  to  endure  the  taunts  and  bravado  of  this  champion,  at 
last  obtained  permission  to  encounter  him  in  single  combat. 
They  met  accordingly  with  much  ceremony,  tilted  against 
each  other,  and  shivered  their  lances  in  good  style,  but  with¬ 
out  much  effect.  The  Albanian  then  drew  a  pistol.  Cathulle 
had  no  weapon  save  a  cutlass,  but  with  this  weapon  he  suc¬ 
ceeded  in  nearly  cutting  off  the  hand  which  held  the  pistol. 
He  then  took  his  enemy  prisoner,  the  vain-glorious  challenger 
throwing  his  gold  chain  around  his  conqueror’s  neck  in  token 
of  his  victory.  Prince  Maurice  caused  his  wound  to  be  bound 
up  and  then  liberated  him,  sending  him  into  the  city  with  a 
message  to  the  governor.35 

During  the  following  night  the  bridge,  over  which  the 


Baldwin  and  Adolph,  were  both  in  tlie 
army.  Adolph  was  shot  through  the 
body  in  this  same  storming  party  in 
wdiich  Nicholas  was  killed,  but  seems 
to  have  recovered.  They  were  the 
sons  of  Adolph  Meetkerke,  formerly 
president  of  Flanders,  who,  on  account 
of  his  participation  in  Leicester’s  at¬ 
tempt  upon  Leyden  (see  vol.  II.  of  this 
work,  chap,  xvii.)  was  a  refugee  in 
England.  See  Mulder’s  note  to 


Duyck,  p.  20.  See  note,  p.  599. 

How  much  does  the  brief  martial 
record  of  these  four  brothers  in  this 
war  of  Dutch  burghers  for  national 
existence  remind  us  of  the  simple  but 
heroic  annals  of  many  a  family  of  our 
own  countrymen  in  the  great  war  now 
waging  for  the  same  object !  (1803). 

34  Reyd,  ubi  sup. 

35  Meteren,  ubi  sup. 


1591. 


CAPITULATION  OF  DEVENTER 


109 


assailants  had  nearly  forced  their  way  into  the  town,  was 
vigorously  attacked  by  the  garrison,  but  Count  Lewis  William, 
in  person,  with  a  chosen  band  defended  it  stoutly  till  morning, 
beating  back  the  Spaniards  with  heavy  loss  in  a  sanguinary 
midnight  contest.36 

Next  morning  there  was  a  unanimous  outcry  on  the  part  of 
the  besieged  for  a  capitulation.  It  was  obvious  that,  June  10, 
with  the  walls  shot  to  ruins  as  they  had  been,  the  1591. 
place  was  no  longer  tenable  against  Maurice’s  superior 
forces.  A  trumpet  was  sent  to  the  prince  before  the  dawn 
of  day,  and  on  the  10th  of  June,  accordingly,  the  place 
capitulated.37 

It  was  arranged  that  the  garrison  should  retire  with  arms 
and  baggage  whithersoever  they  chose.  Yan  den  Berg 
stipulated  nothing  in  favour  of  the  citizens,  whether  through 
forgetfulness  or  spite  does  not  distinctly  appear.  But 
the  burghers  were  received  like  brothers.  No  plunder 
was  permitted,  no  ransom  demanded,  and  the  city  took 
its  place  among  its  sisterhood  of  the  United  Provinces.38 
Yan  den  Berg  himself  was  received  at  the  prince’s  head¬ 
quarters  with  much  cordiality.  He  was  quite  blind ; 
but  his  wound  seemed  to  be  the  effect  of  exterior  contu¬ 
sions,  and  he  ultimately  recovered  the  sight  of  one  eye. 
There  was  much  free  conversation  between  himself  and  his 
cousins  during  the  brief  interval  in  which  he  was  their 
guest’. 

“I've  often  told  Yerdugo,”  said  he,  “that  the  States  had 
no  power  to  make  a  regular  siege,  nor  to  come  with  proper 
artillery  into  the  field,  and  he  agreed  with  me.  But  we  were 
both  wrong,  for  I  now  see  the  contrary.” 

To  which  Count  Lewis  William  replied  with  a  laugh:  “My 
dear-  cousin,  I’ve  observed  that  in  all  your  actions  you  were 
in  the  habit  of  desjoising  us  Beggars,  and  I  have  said  -that  you 
would  one  day  draw  the  shortest  straw  in  consequence.  I’m 
glad  to  hear  this  avowal  from  your  own  lips.” 

36  Bor,  ubi  sup. 

37  Ibid.  Meteren,  Reyd,  ubi  sup.  Duyck,  20-25.  Parma  to  Philip,  10  June, 

1591.  (Arch,  de  Sim.  MS.)  38  Ibid. 


.  110 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIV. 


Herman  attempted  no  reply  but  let  the  subject  drop, 
seeming  to  regret  having  said  so  much.59 

Soon  afterwards  he  was  forwarded  by  Maurice  in  his  own 
coach  to  Ulff,  where  he  was  attended  by  the  prince's  body 
physician  till  he  was  re-established  in  health.40 

Thus  within  ten  days  of  his  first  appearance  before  its  walls, 
the  city  of  Deventer,  and  with  it  a  whole  province,  had  fallen 
into  the  hands  of  Maurice.  It  began  to  be  understood  that 
the  young  pedant  knew  something  about  his  profession,  and 
that  he  had  not  been  fagging  so  hard  at  the  science  of  war  for 
nothing.41 

The  city  was  in  a  sorry  plight  when  the  States  took  pos¬ 
session  of  it.  As  at  Zutphen,  the  substantial  burghers  had 
wandered  away,  ‘and  the  foreign  soldiers  bivouacking  there  so 
long  had  turned  the  stately  old  Hanseatic  city  into  a  brick 
and  mortar  wilderness.  Hundreds  of  houses  had  been  demo¬ 
lished  by  the  garrison,  that  the  iron  might  be  sold  and  the 
woodwork  burned  for  fuel ;  for  the  enemy  had  conducted 
himself  as  if  feeling  in  his  heart  that  the  occupation  could 
not  be  a  permanent  one,  and  as  if  desirous  to  make  the  place 
as  desolate  as  possible  for  the  Beggars  when  they  should 
return,43 

The  dead  body  of  the  traitor  York,  who  had  died  and  been 
buried  in  Deventer,  was  taken  from  the  tomb,  after  the  cap¬ 
ture  of  the  city,  and  with  the  vulgar  ferocity  so  characteristic 
of  the  times,  was  hung,  coffin  and  all,  on  the  gibbet  for  the 
delectation  of  the  States'  soldiery.43 

Maurice,  having  thus  in  less  than  three  weeks  recovered 
two  most  important  cities,  paused  not  an  instant  in  his  career 
but  moved  at  once  on  Groningen.  There  was  a  strong 
pressure  put  upon  him  to  attempt  the  capture  of  Nymegen, 


S9  Reyd,  uhi  sup. 

40  Bor,  uhi  sup. 

41  Turenne  (Due  de  Bouillon)  was 
excessively  enthusiastic.  “  Je  ne  vous 
sqauroy  dire  la  joie,”  he  wrote  to  Count 
John  the  Elder,  “  que  j’ay  de  l’lion- 
neur  que  Monsieur  le  Comte  Maurice 
votre  nepveu  a  acquis  en  la  prise  de 


Zutphen  et  Deventer.  II  a  efface  en 
huict  jours  la  reputation  que  le  Due 
de  Panne  a  acquis  en  dix  ans,  et  faict 
bien  paraistre  que  la  vertu  et  gene- 
rosite  de  sa  Maison  est  immortelle.” 
Groen  v.  Prinsterer.  (Archives,  II.  S. 
i.  169.)  42  Reyd,  ubi  sup. 

43  Bor,  Reyd,  Meteren,  ubi  sup. 


1591. 


SIEGE  OF  GRONINGEN. 


Ill 


but  the  understanding  with  the  Frisian  stadholders  and  his 
troops  had  been  that  the  enterprise  upon  Groningen  should 
follow  the  reduction  of  Deventer. 

On  the  26th  June  Maurice  appeared  before  Groningen. 
Next  day,  as  a  precautionary  step,  he  moved  to  the  ^(EJuno, 
right  and  attacked  the  strong  city  of  Delfzyl.  This 
place  capitulated  to  him  on  the  2nd  July.  The  fort  2  July, 

i  j.  */  X  01)  1 

of  Opslag  surrendered  on  the  7th  July.  He  then 
moved  to  the  west  of  Groningen,  and  attacked  the  7  July, 
forts  of  Yemen  til  and  Lettebaest,  which  fell  into  his  11  Jul7' 
hands  on  the  11th  July.  He  then  moved  along  the  Nyenoort 
through  the  Seven  Wolds  and  Drenthe  to  Steenwyk,  before 

which  strongly  fortified  city  he  arrived  on  the  15th 
July.41  •  15  July. 

Meantime,  he  received  intercepted  letters  from  Yerdugo  to 
the  Duke  of  Parma,  dated  19th  June  from  Groningen.  In 
these,  the  Spanish  stadholder  informed  Farnese  that  the 
enemy  was  hovering  about  his  neighbourhood,  and  that  it 
would  he  necessary  for  the  duke  to  take  the  field  in  person 
in  considerable  force,  or  that  Groningen  would  be  lost,  and 
•  with  it  the  Spanish  forces  in  the  province.  He  enclosed  a 
memorial  of  the  course  proper  to  be  adopted  by  the  duke  for 
.  his  relief.45 

Notwithstanding  the  strictness  by  which  Philip  had  tied  his 
great  general’s  hands,  Farnese  felt  the  urgency  of  the  situa¬ 
tion.46  By  the  end  of  June,  accordingly,  although  full  of  his 
measures  for  marching  to  the  relief  of  the  Leaguers  in  Nor¬ 
mandy,  he  moved  into  Gelderland,  coming  by  way  of  Xanten, 
Rees,  and  neighbouring  places.  Here  he  paused  for  a  moment 
perplexed,  doubting  whether  to  take  the  aggressive  in  Gelder¬ 
land  or  to  march  straight  to  the  relief  of  Groningen.  He 
decided  that  it  was  better  for  the  moment  to  protect  the  line 
of  the  Waal.  Shipping  his  army  accordingly  into  the  Bata¬ 
vian  Island  or  Good-meadow  (Bet-uwe),  which  lies  between 

44  Bor,  III.  xxviii.  566-569.  Meteren,  xvii.  298,  299.  Reyd,  ix.  169-172. 
Duyck,  25-34. 

45  Bor,  ubi  sup.  568.  40  Bor,  ubi  sup.  570,  seqq.  Meteren,  ubi  sup. 


112 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIV. 


the  two  great  horns  of  the  Rhine,  he  laid  siege  to  Fort  Knod- 
senburg,  which  Maurice  had  built  the  year  before,  on  the  right 
hank  of  the  Waal  for  the  purpose  of  attacking  Nymegen. 
Famese,  knowing  that  the  general  of  the  States  was  occu¬ 
pied  with  his  whole  army  far  away  to  the  north,  and  sepa¬ 
rated  from  him  by  two  great  rivers,  wide  and  deep,  and  by 
the  whole  breadth  of  that  dangerous  district  called  the 
houl-meadow  (Vel-uwe),  and  by  the  vast  quagmire  known  as 
the  Rouvenian  morass,  which  no  artillery  nor  even  any 
organised  forces  had  ever  traversed47  since  the  beginning  of 
the  world,  had  felt  no  hesitation  in  throwing  his  army  in 
boats  across  the  Waal.  He  had  no  doubt  of  reducing  a  not 
very  powerful  fortress  long  before  relief  could  be  brought  to  it, 
and  at  the  same  time  of  disturbing  by  his  presence  in  Batavia 
the  combinations  of  his  young  antagonist  in  Friesland  and 
Groningen.48 

So  with  six  thousand  foot  and  one  thousand  horse,49  Alex¬ 
ander  came  before  Knodsenburg.  The  news  reached  Maurice 
at  Steenwyk  on  the  15th  July.  Instantly  changing  his 
plans,  the  prince  decided  that  Farnese  must  be  faced  at  once, 
and,  if  possible,  driven  from  the  ground,  thinking  it  more 
important  to  maintain,  by  concentration,  that  which  had 
already  been  gained,  than  to  weaken  and  diffuse  his  forces 
m  insufficient  attempts  to  acquire  more.  Before  two  days 
had  passed,  he  was  on  the  march  southward,  having  left 
Lewis  William  with  a  sufficient  force  to  threaten  Gronffigen. 
Coming  by  way  of  Hasselt  Zwol  to  Deventer,  he  crossed 
18  July,  the  Yssel  on  a  bridge  of  boats  on  the  18th  of  July, 
lo91'  and  proceeded  to  Arnhem.50  His  army,  although 
excessively  fatigued  by  forced  marches  in  very  hot  weather, 
ovei  ncaily  impassable  roads,  was  full  of  courage  and  cheer¬ 
fulness,  having  learned  implicit  confidence  in  their  commander. 

20  July.  On  the  20th  he  was  at  Arnhem.  On  the  22nd  his 
22  July,  bridge  of  boats  was  made,  and  he  had  thrown  his  little 


47  Van  cler  Kemp,  i.  111. 

48  Bor,  Meteren,  ubi  sup. 
MS.)  49  Parma’s  letter 


Parma  to  Philip,  24  July,  1591.  (Arch,  de  Sim. 
last  cited.  co  Bor,  Meteren,  ubi  sup. 


1591. 


SIEGE  OF  GRONINGEN. 


113 


army  acioss  tliG  Rhine  into  Batavia,  and  entrenched  himself 
with  liis  six  thousand  foot  and  fourteen  hundred  horse  in 
the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  Farnese — Foul-meadow  and 
Good-meadow, •dyke,  bog,  wold,  and  quagmire*  had  been  suc¬ 
cessfully  traversed,  and  within  one  week  of  his  learning  that 
the  great  viceroy  of  Philip  had  reached  the  Batavian  island, 
Maurice  stood  confronting  that  famous  chieftain  in  battle-array. 

On  the  22nd  July,  Farnese,  after  tiring  two  hundred  and 
eighty-five  shots  at  Fort  Knodsenburg,  ordered  an 
assault,  expecting  that  so  trifling  a  work  could  22  Jul7' 
hardly  withstand  a  determined  onslaught  by  his  veterans.  To 
his  surprise  they  were  so  warmly  received  that  two  hundred 
of  the  assailants  fell  at  the  first  onset,  and  the  attack  was 
most  conclusively  repulsed.51 

And  now  Maurice  had  appeared  upon  the  scene,  determined 
to  relieve  a  place  so  important  for  his  ulterior  de-  o4  Ju] 
signs.  On  the  24th  July  he  sent  out  a  small  but  *591- 
picked  force  of  cavalry  to  reconnoitre  the  enemy.  They  were 
‘attacked  by  a  considerable  body  of  Italian  and  Spanish  horse 
from  the  camp  before  Knodsenburg,  including  Alexander’s 
own  company  of  lancers  under  Kicelli.  The  States  troops 
fled  before  them  in  apparent  dismay  for  a  little  distance, 
hotly  pursued  by  the  royalists,  until,  making  a  sudden  halt,' 
they  turned  to  the  attack,  accompanied  by  five  fresh  com¬ 
panies  of  cavalry  and  a  thousand  musketeers,  who  fell  upon 
the  foe  from  all  directions.  It  was  an  ambush,  which  had 
been  neatly  prepared  by  Maurice  in  person,  assisted  by 
Sir  Francis  Yere.  Sixty  of  the  Spaniards  and  Italians  were 
killed  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  prisoners,  including  Captain 
Nicelli,  taken,  while  the  rest  of  the  party  sought  safety  in 
ignominious  flight.52.  This  little  skirmish,  in  which  ten 
companies  of  the  picked  veterans  of  Alexander  Farnese 
had  thus  been  utterly  routed  before  his  eyes,  did  much  to 

inspiie  the  States  troops  with  confidence  in  themselves  and 
their  leader.53 


51  Bor,  Meteren,  ubi  sup. 

52  Bor,  Meteren,  ubi  sup.  Groen  v.  Prinsterer 

53  Duyck,  38,  39.  Bor,  Meteren,  ubi  sun. 

VOL  III. — I 


(Archives,  II.  S.  i.  172.) 


114 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIV. 


Parma  was  too  experienced  a  campaigner,  and  had  too 
quick  an  eye,  not  to  recognise  the  error  which  he  had  com¬ 
mitted  in  placing  the  dangerous  river  Waal,  without  a  bridge, 
between,  himself  and  his  supplies.  He  had  not  dreamed  that 
his  antagonist  would  he  capable  of  such  celerity  of  movement 
as  he  had  thus  displayed,  and  his  first  business  now  was  to 
extricate  himself  from  a  position  which  might  soon  become 
fatal.  Without  hesitation,  he  did  his  best  to  amuse  the  enemy 
in  front  of  the  fort,  and  then  passed  the  night  in  planting 
batteries  upon  the  hanks  of  the  river,  under  cover  of  which 
he  succeeded  next  day  in  transporting  in  ferry-boats  his 
whole  force,  artillery  and  baggage,  to  the  opposite  shore, 
without  loss,  and  with  his  usual  skill.54 

He  remained  but  a  short  time  in  Hymegen,  hut  he  was 
hampered  by  the  express  commands  of  the  king.  Moreover, 
his  broken  health  imperatively  required  that  he  should  once 
more  seek  the  healing  influence  of  the  waters  of  Spa,  before 
setting .  forth  on  his  new  F rench  expedition.  Meanwhile, 
although  he  had  for  a  time  protected  the  Spanish  possessions 
in  the  north  by  his  demonstration  in  Gelderland,  it  must  he 
confessed  that  the  diversion  thus  given  to  the  plans  of 
Maurice  was  hut  a  feeble  one. 

Having  assured  the  inhabitants  of  Nymegen  that  he  would 
4  Auo-  wa^°k  over  the  city  like  the  apple  of  his  eye,55  he 
took  his  departure  on  the  4th  of  August  for  Spa. 
He  was  accompanied  on  his  journey  by  his  son,  Prince 
Kanuccio,  just  arrived  from  Italy. 

After  the  retreat  of  Farnese,  Maurice  mustered  his  forces 
at  Arnhem,  and  found  himself  at  the  head  of  seven  thousand 
foot  and  fifteen  hundred  horse.  It  was  expected  by  all  the 
world  that,  being  thus  on  the  very  spot,  he  would  forthwith 
proceed  to  reduce  the  ancient,  wealthy,  imperial  city  of 


64  Duyck,  41.  “We  may  thank 
God  Almighty,”  says,  under  date  of 
27  July,  the  faithful  journalist  of  these 
transactions,  “  that  He  has  so  guided 
our  affairs  that  the  Duke  of  Parma, 
whom  hardly  any  cities  or  provinces 
could  hitherto  resist,  and  who  there¬ 


fore  has  usurped  the  title  of  the  great 
Alexander,  now  with  great  shame  and 
loss  has  been  obliged  to  retreat  from 
beforethe  single  fortof  Knodsenburg.” 
Compare  Bor,  Meteren,  ubi  sup.  Van 
der  Kemp,  i.  111.  Coloma,  iv.  74v0. 

55  Meteren,  xvi.  299,  300. 


1591. 


SURRENDER  OF  HULST. 


115 


Nymegen.  The  garrison  and  burghers  accordingly  made 
every  preparation  to  resist  the  attack,  disconcerted  as  they 
were,  however,  by  the  departure  of  Parma,  and  by  the 

apparent  incapacity  of  Verdugo  to  bring  them  effectual 
relief. 

But  to  the  surprise  of  all  men,  the  States  forces  suddenly 
disappeared  from  the  scene,  having  been,  as  it  were,  spirited 
away  by  night-time,  along  those  silent  watery  highways  and 
ci  oss ways  of  canal,  river,  and  estuary — the  military  advantages 
of  which  to  the  Netherlands,  Maurice  was  the  first  thoroughly 
to  demonstrate.  Having  previously  made  great  preparations 
of  munitions  and  jirovisions  in  Zeeland,  the  young  general, 
who  was  thought  hard  at  work  in  Gelderland,  suddenly  pre¬ 
sented  himself,  on  the  19th  September,  before  the 
gates  of  Hulst,  on  the  border  of  Zeeland  and  Brabant.  19  Sept’ 

It  was  a  place  of  importance  from  its  situation,  its  possession 
by  the  enemy  being  a  perpetual  thorn  in  the  side  of  the 
States,  and  a  constant  obstacle  to  the  plans  of  Maurice.  His 
anangements  having  been  made  with  the  customary 
neatness,  celerity,  and  completeness,  he  received  the  24  Sept 
surrender  of  the  city  on  the  fifth  day  after  his  arrival.56 

Its  commander,  Castillo,  could  offer  no  resistance,  and 
v  as  subsequently,  it  is  said,  beheaded  by  order  of  the  Duke 

Parma  for  his  negligence.67  The  place  is  but  a  dozen 
miles  from  Antwerp,  which  city  was  at  the  very  moment 
keeping  great  holiday  and  outdoing  itself  in  magnificent 
festivals  in  honour  of  young  Kanuccio.58  The  capture  of 
Hulst  before  his  eyes  was  a  demonstration  quite  unex¬ 
pected  by  the  prince,  and  great  was  the  wrath  of  old  Mon¬ 
dragon,  governor  of  Antwerp,  thus  bearded  in  his  den.  The 
veteran  made  immediate  preparations  for  chastising  the 
audacious  Beggars  of  Zeeland  and  their  pedantic  young 
commander,  but  no  sooner  had  the  Spaniards  taken  the 

field  than  the  wily  foe  had  disappeared  as  magically  as  he 
had  come. 


66  Meteren,  ubi  sup.  Bor,  ubi  sup.  574  Duyck.  48-58. 
67  Meteren,  ubi  sup.  58  j^d. 


116 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIV. 


The  Flemish  earth  seemed  to  have  bubbles  as  the  water 
hath,  and  while  Mondragon  was  beating  the  air  in  vain  on 
the  margin  of  the  Scheld,  Maurice  was  back  again  upon  .the 
Waal,  horse,  foot,  and  artillery,  bag,  baggage,  and  munition, 
and  had  fairly  set  himself  down  in  earnest  to  besiege  Nymegen, 
before  the  honest  burghers  and  the  garrison  had  finished 
drawing  long  breaths  at  their  recent  escape.  Between  the  14tli 
14-16  Oct.  and  16th  October  he  had  bridged  the  deep,  wide, 
1591.  and  rapid  river,  had  transported  eight  thousand  five 
hundred  infantry  and  sixteen  companies  of  cavalry  to  the 
southern  side,  had  entrenched  his  camp  and  made  his  ap¬ 
proaches,  and  had  got  sixty-eight  pieces  of  artillery  into  three 
positions  commanding  the  weakest  part  of  the  defences  ot  the 
city  between  the  Falcon  Tower  and  the  Hoender  gate.59  The 
fort  of  Knodsenburg  was  also  ready  to  throw  hot  shot  across  the 
river  into  the  town.  Not  a  detail  in  all  these  preparations 
escaped  the  vigilant  eye  of  the  Commander-in-Chief,  and  again 
and  again  was  he  implored  not  so  recklessly  to  expose  a  life 
already  become  precious  to  his  country.  On  the  20th 
October,  Maurice  sent  to  demand  the  surrender  of 
the  city.  The  reply  was  facetious  but  decisive. 

The  prince  was  but  a  young  suitor,  it  was  said,  and  the 
city  a  spinster  not  so  lightly  to  be  won.  A  longer  courtship 
and  more  trouble  would  be  necessary.60 

Whereupon  the  suitor  opened  all  his  batteries  without 
further  delay,  and  the  spinster  gave  a  fresh  example  of  the 
inevitable  fate  of  talking  castles  and  listening  ladies. 

Nymegen,  despite  her  saucy  answer  on  the  20th,  sur¬ 
rendered  on  the  21st.  Belief  was  impossible. 

"1  0ct‘  Neither  Parma,  now  on  his  way  to  France,  nor 
Yerdugo,  shut  up  in  Friesland,  could  come  to  the  rescue  of 
the  place,  and  the  combinations  of  Maurice  were  an  inexorable 
demonstration. 

The  terms  of  the  surrender  were  similar  to  those  accorded 
to  Zutphen  and  Deventer.  In  regard  the  religious  point 
it  was  expressly  laid  down  by  Maurice  that  the  demand  for 

69  Meteren,  xvi.  800.  Bor,  xxviii.  575.  Duyck,  59-67.  60  Meteren,  ubi  sup. 


20  Oct. 


1591. 


CAPTURE  OF  NYMEGEN. 


117 


permission  to  exercise  publicly  the  Roman  Catholic  religion 
should  be  left  to  the  decision  of  the  States-General.61 

And  thus  another  most  important  city  had  been  added  to 
the  domains  of  the  republic.  Another  triumph  was  inscribed 
on  the  record  of  the  young  commander.  The  exultation  was 
very  great  throughout  the  United  Netherlands,  and  heart¬ 
felt  was  the  homage  rendered  by  all  classes  of  his  countrymen 
to  the  son  of  William  the  Silent. 

Queen  Elizabeth  wrote  to  congratulate  him  in  warmest 
terms  on  his  great  successes,  and  even  the  Spaniards  began 
to  recognise  the  merits  of  the  new  chieftain.  An  intercepted 
letter  from  Yerdugo,  who  had,  been  foiled  in  his  efforts  to 
arrest  the  career  of  Maurice,  indicated  great  respect  for  his 
prowess.  “  I  have  been  informed,”  said  the  veteran,  “  that 
Count  Maurice  of  Nassau  wishes  to  fight  me.  Had  I  the  op¬ 
portunity  I  assure  you  that  I  should  not  fail  him,  for  even  if  ill 
luck  were  my  portion,  I  should  at  least  not  escape  the  honour  of 
being  beaten  by  such  a  personage.  I  beg  you  to  tell  him  so  with 
my  affectionate  compliments.  Yours,  Francis  Yerdugo.”62 

These  chivalrous  sentiments  towards  Prince  Maurice  had 
not  however  prevented  Yerdugo  from  doing  his  best  to 
assassinate  Count  Lewis  William.  Two  Spaniards  had  been 
arrested  in  the  States  camp  this  summer,  who  came  in  as 
deserters,  but  who  confessed  “with  little,  or  mostly  without 
torture,”  that  they  had  been  sent  by  their  governor  and 
colonel  with  instructions  to  seize  a  favourable  opportunity  to 
shoot  Lewis  William  and  set  fire  to  his  camp.  But  such 
practices  were  so  common  on  the  part  of  the  Spanish  com¬ 
manders  as  to  occasion  no  surprise  whatever.63 

It  will  be  remembered  that  two  years  before,  the  famous 
Martin  Schenk  had  come  to  a  tragic  end  at  Nymegen.64  He 
had  been  drowned,  fished  up,  hanged,  drawn,  and  quartered  ; 
after  which  his  scattered  fragments,  having  been  exposed  on 
all  the  principal  towers  of  the  city,  had  been  put  in  pickle 
and  deposited  in  a  chest.  They  were  now-  collected  and 


C1  Meteren,  Bor,  Duyck,  ubi  sup. 
Van  der  Kemp,  i.  1 13. 

62  Bor,  ubi  sup.  578. 


63  Groen  v.  Prinsterer.  (Archives, 
!-  Serie  i.  148.) 

64  Vol.  II.  of  this  work,  chap.  xx. 


118 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


'  Chap.  XXIV. 


buried  triumphantly  in  the  tomb  of  tbe  Dukes  of  Gelderland. 
Thus  tbe  shade  of  the  grim  freebooter  was  at  last  appeased.65 

The  ^government  of  the  city  was  conferred  upon  Count 
Lewis  William,  with  Gerard  de  Jonge  as  his  lieutenant.  A 
substantial  garrison  was  placed  in  the  city,  and,  the  season 
being  now  far  advanced,  Maurice  brought  the  military  opera¬ 
tions  of  the  year,  saving  a  slight  preliminary  demonstration 
against  Gertruydenberg,  to  a  close.66  He  had  deserved  and 
attained  considerable  renown.  He  had  astonished  the 
leisurely  war-makers  and  phlegmatic  veterans  of  the  time, 
both  among  friends  and  foes,  by  the  unexampled  rapidity  of 
his  movements  and  the  concentration  of  his  attacks.  He  had 
carried  great  waggon  trains  and  whole  parks  of  siege  artillery 
— the  heaviest  then  known — over  roads  and  swamps  which 
had  been  deemed  impassable  even  for  infantry.  He  had 
traversed  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  republic  in  a  single 
campaign,  taken  two  great  cities  in  Overyssel,  picked  up  cities 
and  fortresses  in  the  province  of  Groningen,  and  threatened 
its  capital,  menaced  Steenwyk,  relieved  Knodsenburg  though 
besieged  in  person  by  the  greatest  commander  of  the  age, 
beaten  the  most  famous  cavalry  of  Spain  and  Italy  under  the 
eyes  of  their  chieftain,  swooped  as  it  were  through  the  air 
upon  Brabant,  and  carried  off  an  important  city  almost  in  the 
sight  of  Antwerp,  and  sped  back  again  in  the  freezing  weather 
of  early  autumn,  with  his  splendidly  served  and  invincible 
artillery,  to  the  imperial  city  of  Nymegen,  which  Farnese 
had  sworn  to  guard  like  the  apple  of  his  eye,  and  which,  with 
consummate  skill,  was  forced  out  of  his  grasp  in  five  days. 

“  Some  might  attribute  these  things  to  blind  fortune/’  says 
an  honest  chronicler  who  had  occupied  important  posts  in  the 
service  of  the  prince  and  of  his  cousin  Lewis  William,  “but 
they  who  knew  the  prince’s  constant  study  and  laborious 
attention  to  detail,  who  were  aware  that  he  never  committed 
to  another  what  he  could  do  himself,  who  saw  his  sobriety, 
vigilance,  his  perpetual  study  and  holding  of  council  with 
Count  Lewis  William  (himself  possessed  of  all  these  good 

65  Bor,  ubi  sup.  60  Bor,  Meteren,  Duyck,  ubi  sup. 


I 


1591.  SUCCESSFUL  CAMPAIGN  OF  PRINCE  MAURICE.  HQ 

gifts,  perhaps  even  in  greater  degree),  and  who  never  found 
him  seeking,  like  so  many  other  commanders,  his  own  ease 
and  comfort,  would  think  differently.”  e7 


67  Reyd,  ix.  175. 

It  is  indeed  impossible  to  regard  the 
simple,  earnest,  genial,  valorous,  and 
studious  character  of  Lewis  William 
without  affection.  His  private  letters 
are  charming.  In  the  intervals  of  his 
busy  campaignings,  he  found  time  not 
only  for  his  own  studies,  but  also  for 
superintending  the  education  of  his 
two  younger  brothers.  It  had  at  first 
been  proposed  that  they  should  go  to 
an  English  university,  but  old  Count 
John  objected  to  the  expense,  and  to 
the  luxurious  habits  which  they  would 
encounter  .there.  He  liked  not  the 
“mores”  of  the  young  English  no¬ 
bles,  he  said,  while  he  denounced  in 
vehement  language  the.  drunkenness 
and  profligacy  of  the  Germans.  It 
was  now  decided  that  Count  Lewis 
William  should  take  charge  of  them 
himself :  “  As  there  is  no  good  oppor¬ 
tunity  for  them  at  Dillenburg,”  he 
wrote  to  his  father,  “  and  as  the  ex¬ 
pense  of  Leyden  seems  too  great,  it  is 
better  that  they  should  remain  with 
me.  Although  living  is  very  dear 
here,  and  my  housekeeping  is  very 
hard  upon  me,  yet  are  my  young  bro¬ 
thers,  and  their  good  education,  on 
which  their  weal  and  woe  depend,  so 
dear  to  me  that  I  will  take  charge  of 
them  with  all  my  heart.  In  this  case 
your  grace  will  please  send  them  a 
learned  preceptor,  and  pay  for  his 
salary  and  for  my  brothers’  clothing. 
For  the  rest  I  will  provide  ;  and  I  will 
myself  be  their  tutor  in  reading  and 
studying,  in  which  I  exercise  myself 
as  much  as  I  have  opportunity  to  do, 
and  I  mil  take  them  with  me  to  the 
field  whenever  there  is  anything  to 
see  there,  and  anything  going  on 
against  the  enemy.”  Groen  v.  Prins- 
terer.  (Archives,  II.  S.  i.  149,  227, 
131, 144.) 

This  was  the  stuff  out  of  which  the 
Nassaus  were  made.  William  the 
Silent  and  his  three  brethren  had 
already  laid  down  their  lives  for  the 
commonwealth  which  he  had  founded, 
and  now  there  were  his  son  and 
nine  more  of  the  race  in  arms  for 
its  defence,  or  devoting  all  their  ener¬ 


gies  and  their  means  to  emulate  the 
example  set  them  by  their  predeces¬ 
sors.  Nor  can  I  refrain  in  this  con¬ 
nection  from  citing  the  noble  language 
in  which  the  patriarch  of  the  Nassaus, 
Count  John  the  Elder,  urged  upon  his 
sons  and  nephews  the  necessity  of 
establishing  a  system  of  common 
schools  in  the  United  Provinces — an 
institution  which,  when  adopted  in 
that  commonwealth,  became  a  source 
of  incalculable  good,  and  which,  trans¬ 
planted  in  the  next  generation  by  Eng¬ 
lish  pilgrims  from  Leyden  to  Massa¬ 
chusetts,  and  vastly  developed  in 
the  virgin  soil  of  America,  has  long 
been  the  chief  safeguard  and  the 
peculiar  glory  of  our  own  republic. 
“  You  must  urge  upon  the  States-Ge- 
neral,”  said  the  only  surviving  brother 
of  William  the  Silent,  “  that  they,  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  example  of  the  Pope 
and  the  Jesuits,  should  establish  free 
schools  where  children  of  quality  as 
well  as  of  poor  families,  for  a  very 
small  sum,  could  be  well  and  cliris- 
tianly  educated  and  brought  Up.  This 
would  be  the  greatest  and  most  useful 
work,  and  the  highest  service  that  you 
could  ever  accomplish  for  God  and 
Christianity,  and  especially  for  the 
Netherlands  themselves.  ...  In 
summa,  one  may  jeer  at  this  as  popish 
trickery,  and  undervalue  it  as  one  will, 
there  still  remains  in  the  work  an  in¬ 
expressible  benefit.  Soldiers  and  pa¬ 
triots  thus  educated,  with  a  true  know¬ 
ledge  of  God  and  a  Christian  coin¬ 
science  :  item,  churches  and  schools, 
good  libraries,  books  and  printing- 
presses,  are  better  than  all  armies,  ar¬ 
senals,  armouries,  munitions,  alliances, 
and  treaties  that  can  be  had  or  ima¬ 
gined  in  the  world.  ....  Pray 
urge  upon  his  Grace  (Prince  Maurice), 
in  cousinly  and  friendly  manner,  that 
he  should  not  shrink  from  nor  find 
shame  or  diffi  culty  in  these  things,  nor 
cease,  under  invocation  of  Divine  aid, 
from  reflecting  on  them,  and  further¬ 
ing  them  with  earnest  diligence.” 
Groen  v.  Prinsterer.  (Archives,  II.  S. 
i.  Letter  95,  p  210  seqq.) 


120  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXV. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

.  War  in  Brittany  and  Normandy  —  Death  of  La  Noue  —  Religious  and 
political  persecution  in  Paris  —  Murder  of  President  Brisson,  Larclier, 
and  Tardif  —  The  sceptre  of  France  offered  to  Philip  —  The  Duke  of 
Mayenne  punishes  the  murderers  of  the  magistrates  —  Speech  of  Henry’s 
envoy  to  the  States-General  —  Letter  of  Queen  Elizabeth  to  Henry  — 
Siege  of  Rouen  —  Farnese  leads  an  army  to  its  relief  —  The  king  is 
wounded  in  a  skirmish  —  Siege  of  Rue  by  Farnese  —  Henry  raises  the 
siege  of  Rouen  —  Siege  of  Caudebec  —  Critical  position  of  Farnese  and 
his  army  —  Victory  of  the  Duke  of  Mercceur  in  Brittany. 


Again  the  central  point  towards  which  the  complicated 
events  to  he  described  in  this  history  gravitate  is  found  on 
the  soil  of  France.  Movements  apparently  desultory  and 
disconnected — as  they  may  have  seemed  to  the  contempo¬ 
raneous  observer,  necessarily  occupied  with  the  local  and 
daily  details  which  make  up  individual  human  life — are 
found  to  be  necessary  parts  of  a  whole,  when  regarded  with 
that  breadth  and  clearness  of  vision  which  is  permitted  to 
human  beings  only  when  they  can  look  backward  upon  that 
long  sequence  of  events  which  make  up  the  life  of  nations 
and  which  we  call  the  Past.  It  is  only  by  the  anatomical 
study  of  what  has  ceased  to  exist  that  we  can  come  thoroughly 
to  comprehend  the  framework  and  the  vital  conditions  of  that 
which  lives.  It  is  only  by  patiently  lifting  the  shroud  from 
the  Past  that  we  can  enable  ourselves  to  make  even  wide 
guesses  at  the  meaning  of  the  dim  Present  and  the  veiled 
Future.  It  is  only  thus  that  the  continuity  of  human  history 
reveals  itself  to  us  as  the  most  important  of  scientific  facts. 

If  ever  commonwealth  was  apparently  doomed  to  lose  that 
national  existence  which  it  had  maintained  for  a  brief  period, 
at  the  expense  of  infinite  sacrifice  of  blood  and  treasure,  it  was 
the  republic  of  the  United  Netherlands  in  the  period  imme¬ 
diately  succeeding  the  death  of  William  the  Silent.  Domestic 


1591.  • 


PROSPECTS  OF  THE  REPUBLIC. 


121 


treason,  secession  of  important  provinces,  religions  hatred, 
foreign  intrigue,  and  foreign  invasion — in  such  a  sea  of  troubles 
was  the  republic  destined  generations  long  to  struggle.  Who 
hut  the  fanatical,  the  shallow-minded,  or  the  corrupt  could 
doubt  the  inevitable  issue  of  the  conflict  ?  Did  not  great  sages 
and  statesmen  whose  teachings  seemed  so  much  wiser  in  their 
generation  than  the  untaught  impulses  of  the  great  popular 
heart,  condemn  over  and  over  again  the  hopeless  struggles 
and  the  atrocious  bloodshed  which  were  thought  to  disgrace 
the  age,  and  by  which  it  was  held  impossible  that  the  cause 
of  human  liberty  should  ever  he  advanced  P 

To  us  who  look  hack*  from  the  vantage  summit  which 
humanity  has  reached — thanks  to  the  toil  and  sacrifices  of 
those  who  have  preceded  us — it  may  seem  doubtful  whether 
a  premature  peace  in  the  Netherlands,  France,  and  England 
would  have  been  an  unmitigated  blessing,  however  easily  it 
might  have  been  purchased  by  the  establishment  all  over 
Europe  of  that  holy  institution  called  the  Inquisition,  and 
by  the  tranquil  acceptance  of  the  foreign  domination  of 
Spain. 

If,  too,  ever  country  seemed  destined  to  the  painful  process 
of  national  vivisection  and  final  dismemberment,  it  was  France. 
Its  natural  guardians  and  masters,  save  one,  were  in  secret 
negotiation  with  foreign  powers  to  obtain  with  their  assistance 
a  portion  of  the  national  territory  under  acknowledgment  of 
foreign  supremacy.  There  was  hardly  an  inch  of  F rench  soil 
that  had  not  two  possessors.  In  Burgundy  Baron  Biron  was 
battling  against  the  Yiscount  Tavannes  ;  in  the  Lyonese  and 
Dauphiny  Marshal  des  Digiueres  was  fighting  with  the 
Dukes  of  Savoy  and  Nemours  ;  in  Provence,  Epernon  was 
resisting  Savoy  ;  in  Languedoc,  Constable  Montmorency  con¬ 
tended  with  the  Duke  of  Joyeuse  ;  in  Brittany,  the  Prince  of 
Domhes  was  struggling  with  the  Duke  of  Mercoeur. 

But  there  was  one  adventurer  who  thought  he  could  show 
a  better  legal  title  to  the  throne  of  France  than  all  the  doctors 
of  the  Sorbonne  could  furnish  to  Philip  II.  and  his  daughter, 
and  who  still  trusted,  through  all  the  disasters  which  pursued 


122 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXV. 


him,  and  despite  the  machinations  of  venal  warriors  and  men¬ 
dicant  princes,  to  his  good  right  and  his  good  sword,  and  to 
something  more  potent  than  both,  the  cause  of  national  unity. 
His  rebuke  to  the  intriguing  priests  at  the  interview  of  St. 
Denis,  and  his  reference  to  the  judgment  of  Solomon,  formed 
the  text  to  his  whole  career. 

The  brunt  of  the  war  now  fell  upon  Brittany  and  Nor¬ 
mandy.  Three  .thousand  Spaniards  under  Don  John  de 
Aquila  had  landed  in  the  port  of  Blavet  which  they  had  for¬ 
tified,  as  a  stronghold  on  the  coast.1  And  thither,  to  defend 
the  integrity  of  that  portion  of  France,  which,  in  Spanish 
hands,  was  a  perpetual  menace  to  her  realm,  her  crown,  even 
to  her  life,  Queen  Elizabeth  had  sent  some  three  thousand 
Englishmen,  under  commanders  well  known  to  France  and 
the  Netherlands.  There  was  black  Norris  again  dealing 
death  among  the  Spaniards  and  renewing  his  perpetual 
squabbles  with  Sir  Roger  Williams.  There  was  that  doughty 
Welshman  himself,  truculent  and  caustic  as  ever  and  as  ready 
with  sword  or  pen,  foremost  in  every  mad  adventure  or  every 
forlorn  hope,  criticising  with  shaiyoest  tongue  the  blunders 
and  shortcomings  of  friend  and  foe,  and  devoting  the  last 
drop  in  his  veins  with  chivalrous  devotion  to  his  Queen. 
u  The  world  cannot  deny,”  said  he,  u  that  any  carcase  living 
ventured  himself  freer  and  oftener  for  his  prince,  state,  and 
friends  than  I  did  mine.  There  is  no  more  to  be  had  of  a 
poor  beast  than  his  skin,  and  for  want  of  other  means  I  never 
respected  mine  in  the  least  respect  towards  my  sovereign's 
service,  or  country.”2  And  so  passing  his  life  in  the  saddle 


1  Coloma,  iv.  61v0. 

2  Williams  to  Burghley,  Feb.  15, 
1592.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.) 

A  most  brilliant  combat  had  re¬ 
cently  occurred  before  Dieppe,  in 
which  Sir  Roger,  at  the  head  of  six 
hundred  men — four  hundred  of  them 
English — had  attacked  two  full  regi¬ 
ments  of  the  League  in  their  entrench¬ 
ments,  and  routed  them  utterly,  with 
the  loss  of  five  hundred  killed  and 
wounded,  four  hundred  prisoners,  and 
sustaining  but  little  loss  himself.  The 


achievement  seems  an  extraordinary 
one,  but  is  vouched  for  by  the  Go¬ 
vernor  of  Dieppe,  on  whose  authority 
it  was  communicated  by  the  French 
ambassador  in  London  to  the  Queen  : 
“  Glory  to  God  and  to  the  said  Sir 
Williams,”  said  the  ambassador,  “  who 
has  not  belied  by  this  action  the  good 
opinion  that  all  good  people  of  both 
nations  had  of  him  this  long  time,  and 
has  shown  us  that  the  English  of  our 
day  have  not  degenerated  from  the 
ancient  virtue  of  their  fathers.”  Beau- 


1591. 


SIR  ROGER  WILLIAMS. 


123 


and  under  fire,  yet  finding  leisure  to  collect  the  materials  for, 
and  to  complete  the  execution  of,  one  of  the  most  valuable  and 
attractive  histories  of  the  age,  the  hold  Welshman  again  and 
again  appears,  wearing  the  same  humorous  hut  truculent 
aspect  that  belonged  to  him  when  he  was  wont  to  run  up 
and  down  in  a  great  morion  and  feathers  on  Flemish  battle¬ 
fields,  a  mark  for  the  Spanish  sharp-shooters. 

There,  too,  under  the  banner  of  the  Bearnese,  that  other 
historian  of  those  sanguiuary  times,  who  had  fought  on  almost 
every  battle-field  where  tyranny  and  liberty  had  sought  to 
smite  each  other  dead,  on  French  or  Flemish  soil,  and  who 


voir  la  Node  to  Burghley,  May  24, 
1591.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.) 

No  one  gave  better  or  blunter  ad¬ 
vice  to  both  Queen  and  King  than 
this  hard  -  fighting,  sharp  -  writing 
Welshman.  No  one  insisted  more 
earnestly  than  he  did  on  the  entire 
union  in  interest  and  danger  of  Eliza¬ 
beth,  Henry,  and  the  Dutch  Republic  ; 
and  that  every  battle  gained  in  Brit¬ 
tany,  Normandy,  or  the  Netherlands, 
was  a  blow  struck  in  immediate  de¬ 
fence  of  England’s  very  existence. — 
“  Therefore,  Sacred  Majesty,”  wrote 
Williams,  “  if  you  can,  help  the  King 
to  take  Rouen.  ‘  If  he  be  in  Rouen, 
your  Majesty  may  be  assured  this 
king  is  on  his  horseback  in  such  sort 
that  all  Spain  and  their  confederators 
will  shake  and  dare  think  on  nothing 
else  but  how  to  prevent  him.  Then 
shall  he  be  well  able  to  maintain  him¬ 
self,  and  your  Majesty’s  purse  be  well 
spared,  but  doth  he  not  take  Rouen, 
and  the  Spaniards  enter  into  these 
parts,  as  Villars  and  Tavannes  doth 
demand  them,  then  be  assured  all  the 
charges  of  these  wars  must  be  on 
your  Majesty,  for  the  poor  king  shall 
not  be  able  to  pay  500  soldiers.  If  he 
should  be  beaten,  be  assured  in  few 
months  to  fight  for  the  English  ports, 
in  such  sort  that  I  pray  God  I  may 
never  see  it.  I  fear  I  angered  the 
king.  If  he  be  doing  me  right,  your 
Majesty  and  the  world  found  me  ever 
his  servant  to  the  uttermost  of  my 
power.  I  found  him  sometimes  speak¬ 
ing  he  would  besiege  Pontoise,  some¬ 
times  Sancy  in  Champagne,  and  how 
he  should  join  with  the  Almayn  army. 


]  Besides  other  speeches,  although  not 
flattering,  I  am  assured  honest,  I  told 
his  Majesty,  Sir,  if  you  will  have  the 
world  to  confess  you  as  great  a  captain 
as  yourself,  and  all  we  here  think  you 
to  be,  you  must  recover  or  at  least 
save  your  seaports,  rather  than  those 
bicocques,  or  places  of  small  import¬ 
ance  in  respect  of  them,  else  your  best 
friends  will  despair  of  your  govern¬ 
ment,  and  in  short  time  not  able  to 
succour  you  for  want  of  ports  to  land 
your  necessaries.”  Williams  to  the 
Queen,  from  Dieppe,  4  June  1591. 
(S.  P.  Office  MS.) 

And  again  : — “  Doth  the  king  pros¬ 
per,  your  Majesty  and  estate  must 
needs  flourish,  for  the  wars  will  rest  all 
on  him.  Doth  he  decay,  your  Majesty 
must  needs  maintain  his  wars,  or  in  a 
short  time  fight  of  yourself,  not  only 
against  the  Spanish,  but  against  all 
the  League,  the  which  will  increase 
daily,  for  all  the  mercenaries  will  fol¬ 
low  the  fortunate,  I  mean  the  victori¬ 
ous.  Doth  the  Spanish  ruin  this  king, 
Holland  and  Zeeland  will  be  found 
good  cheap,  and  England  in  that  case 
I  pray  God  never  to  see  it.  Therefore, 
most  sacred  Sovereign,  a  penny  to  save 
a  pound  is  well  bestowed,  and  to  ruin 
a  suburb  to  save  a  city  is  done  to  good 
purpose.  My  meaning  is  better  to 
spend  part  of  your  wealth  and  subjects 
than  to  hazard  the  whole.  This  king 
is  on  making  or  marring,  resolving 
only  on  your  Majesty’s  succour.  Hav¬ 
ing  it,  he  doubts  nothing  to  take 
Rouen.”  Williams  to  the  Queen,  9 
June,  1591.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.) 


124 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXV. 


had  prepared  his  famous  political  and  military  discourses  in 
a  foul  dungeon  swarming  with  toads  and  rats  and  other  vil¬ 
lainous  reptiles  to  which  the  worse  than  infernal  tyranny  of 
Philip  II.  had  consigned  him  for  seven  years  long  as  a 
prisoner  of  war — the  brave  and  good  La  Noue,  with  the  iron 
arm,  hero  of  a  hundred  combats,  was  fighting  his  last  fight. 
At  the  siege  of  Lamballe  in  Brittany,  he  had  taken  off  his 
casque  and  climbed  a  ladder  to  examine  the  breach  effected 
by  the  batteries.  An  arquebus  shot  from  the  town  grazed 
his  forehead,  and,  without  inflicting  a  severe  wound,  stunned 
him  so  much  that  he  lost  his  balance  and  fell  head  foremost 
towards  the  ground  ;  his  leg,  which  had  been  wounded  at  the 
midnight  assault  upon  Paris,  where  he  stood  at  the  side  of 
King  Henry,  caught  in  the  ladder  and  held  him  suspended. 
His  head  was  severely  bruised,  and  the  contusions  and  shock 
to  his  war-worn  frame  were  so  great  that  he  died  after  linger¬ 
ing  eighteen  days. 

His  son  de  Teligny,  who  in  his  turn  had  just  been  ex¬ 
changed  and  icleased  from  the  prison  where  he  had  lain  since 
his  capture  before  Antwerp,  had  hastened  with  joy  to  join  his 
father  in  the  camp,  but  came  to  close  his  eyes.  The  veteran 
caused  the  chapter  in  Job  on  the  resurrection  of  the  body  to 
be  read  to  him  on  his  death-bed,  and  died  expressing  his  firm 
faith  in  a  hereafter.  Thus  passed  away,  at  the  age  of  sixty, 
on  the  4th  August,  1591,  one  of  the  most  heroic  spirits  of 
France.  Prudence,  courage,  experience,  military  knowledge 
both  theoretic  and  practical,  made  him  one  of  the  first  cap¬ 
tains  of  the  age,  and  he  was  not  more  distinguished  for  his 
valour  than  for  the  purity  of  his  life,  and  the  moderation, 
temperance,  and  justice  of  his  character.3  The  Prince  of 
Dombes,  in  despair  at  his  death,  raised  the  siege  of  Lam¬ 
balle. 

There  was  yet  another  chronicler,  fighting  among  the 
Spaniaids,  now  in  Brittany,  now  in  Hormandy,  and  now  in 
Flanders,  and  doing  his  work  as  thoroughly  with  his  sword  as 
afterwards  with  his  pen,  Don  Carlos  Coloma,  captain  of 

3  De  Thou,  t.  xi.  lib.  97,  pp.  397, 398. 


1591. 


PARTIZANS  OF  PHILIP  IN  PARIS. 


125 


cavalry,  afterwards  financier,  envoy,  and  historian.  For  it 
was  thus  that  those  writers  prepared  themselves  for  their 
work.  They  were  all  actors  in  the  great  epic,  the  episodes  of 
which  they  have  preserved.  They  lived  and  fought,  and 
wrought  and  suffered  and  wrote.  Rude  in  tongue,  aflame 
with  passion,  twisted  all  awry  by  prejudice,  violent  in  love 
and  hate,  they  have  left  us  narratives  which  are  at  least  full 
of  colour  and  thrilling  with  life. 

Thus  'Netherlander,  Englishmen,  and  Frenchmen  were 
again  mingling  their  blood  and  exhausting  their  energies  on 
a  hundred  petty  battle-fields  of  Brittany  and  Normandy  ;  hut 
perhaps  to  few  of  those  hard  fighters  was  it  given  to  dis¬ 
cern'  the  great  work  which  they  were  slowly  and  painfully 
achieving. 

In  Paris  the  League  still  maintained  its  ascendancy. 
Henry,  having  again  withdrawn  from  his  attempts  to  reduce 
the  capital,  had  left  the  sixteen  tyrants  who  governed  it  more 
leisure  to  occupy  themselves  with  internal  politics.  A  net¬ 
work  of  intrigue  was  spread  through  the  whole  atmosphere  of 
the  place.  The  Sixteen,  sustained  by  the  power  of  Spain 
and  Rome,  and  fearing  nothing  so  much  as  the  return  of 
peace,  by  which  their  system  of  plunder  would  come  to  an 
end,  proceeded  with  their  persecution  of  all  heretics,  real  or 
supposed,  who  were  rich  enough  to  offer  a  reasonable  chance 
of  spoil.  The  soul  of  all  these  intrigues  was  the  new  legate, 
Sega,  bishop  of  Piacenza.  Letters  from  him  to  Alexander 
Farnese,  intercepted  by  Henry,  showed  a  determination  to 
ruin  the  Duke  of  Mayenne  and  Count  Belin  governor  of  Paris, 
whom  he  designated  as  Colossus  and  Renard,  to  extirpate 
the  magistrates,  and  to  put  Spanish  partizans  in  their  places, 
and  in  general  to  perfect  the  machinery  by  which  the  autho¬ 
rity  of  Philip  was  to  be  established  in  France.  He  was  per¬ 
petually  urging  upon  that  monarch  the  necessity  of  spending 
more  money  among  his  creatures  in  order  to  carry  out  these 
projects.4 

Accordingly  the  attention  of  the  Sixteen  had  been  di- 

4  De  Thou,  438,  439. 


126 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXV. 


rected  to  President  Brisson,  who  had  already  made  himself 
so  dangerously  conspicuous  by  his  resistance  to  the  insolent 
assumption  of  the  cardinal-legate.  This  eminent  juris-consult 
had  succeeded  Pomponne  de  Bellievre  as  first  president  of  the 
Parliament  of  Paris.  He  had  been  distinguished  for  talent, 
learning,  and  eloquence  as  an  advocate,  and  was  the  author 
of  several  important  legal  works.  His  ambition  to  fill  the 
place  of  first  president  had  caused  him  to  remain  in  Paris 
after  its  revolt  against  Henry  III.  He  was  no  Leaguer,  and, 
since  his  open  defiance  of  the  ultra- Catholic  party,  he  had 
been  a  marked  man — doomed  secretly  by  the  confederates 
who  ruled  the  capital.  He  had  fondly  imagined  that  he 
could  govern  the  Parisian  populace  as  easily  as  he  had  been 
in  the  habit  of  influencing  the  Parliament  or  directing  his 
clients.  He  expected  to  restore  the  city  to  its  obedience  to 
the  constituted  authorities.  He  hoped  to  be  himself  the 
means  of  bringing  Henry  IY.  in  triumph  to  the  throne  of  his 
ancestors.  He  found,  however,  that  a  revolution  was  more 
difficult  to  manage  than  a  law  case,  and  that  the  confederates 
of  the  Holy  League  were  less  tractable  than  his  clients  had 
usually  been  found. 

On  the  night  of  the  14th  November,  1591,  he  was  seized 
14  Nov.  011  flie  bridge  St.  Michel,  while  on  his  way  to 
1591.  Parliament,  and  was  told  that  he  was  expected  at 
the  Hotel  de  Ville.  He  was  then  brought  to  the  prison  of  the 
little  Chatelot. 

Hardly  had  he  been  made  secure  in  the  dimly-lighted 
dungeon,  when  Crome,  a  leader  among  the  Parisian  populace, 
made  his  appearance,  accompanied  by  some  of  his  confede¬ 
rates,  and  dressed  in  a  complete  suit  of  mail.  He  ordered  the  . 
magistrate  to  take  off  his  hat  and  to  kneel.  He  then  read 
a  sentence  condemning  him  to  death.  Profoundly  astonished, 
Brisson  demanded  to  know  of  what  crime  he  was  accused, 
and  under  what  authority.  The  answer  was  a  laugh,  and  an 
assurance  that  he  had  no  time  to  lose.  He  then  begged  that 
at  least  he  might  be  imprisoned  long  enough  to  enable  him 
to  complete  a  legal  work  on  which  he  was  engaged,  and  which, 


1591.  .  EXECUTION  OF  THE  MAGISTRATES.  127 

by  his  premature  death,  would  be  lost  to  the  commonwealth. 
This  request  produced  no  doubt  more  merriment  than  his 
previous  demands.  His  judges  were  inflexible,  and  allowed 
him  hardly  time  to  confess  himself.  He  was  then  hanged  in 
his  dungeon.5 

Two  other  magistrates,  Larcher  and  Tardif,  were  executed 
in  the  same  way,  in  the  same  place,  and  on  the  same  night. 
The  crime  charged  against  them  was  having  spoken  in  a 
public  assembly  somewhat  freely  against  the  Sixteen,  and 
having  aided  in  the  circulation  in  Paris  of  a  paper  drawn  up 
by  the  Duke  of  Nevers,  filled  with  bitterness  against  the 
Lorraine  princes  and  the  League,  and  addressed  to  the 
late  Pope  Sixtus.6 

The  three  bodies  were  afterwards  gibbeted  on  the  Greve 
in  front  of  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  and  exposed  for  two  days  to 
the  insults  and  fury  of  the  i>opulace. 

This  was  the  culminating  point  of  the  reign  of  terror  in 
Paris.  Never  had  the  sixteen  tyrants,  lords  of  the  market- 
halls,  who  governed  the  capital  by  favour  of  and  in  the  name 
of  the  populace,  seemed  more  omnipotent.  As  representatives 
or  plenipotentiaries  of  Madam  League  they  had  laid  the  crown 
at  the  feet  of  the  King  of  Spain,  hoping  by  still  further  drafts 
on  his  exchequer  and  his  credulity  to  prolong  indefinitely 
their  own  ignoble  reign.  The  extreme  democratic  party, 
which  had  hitherto  supported  the  House  of  Lorraine,  and  had 
seemed  to  idolize  that  family  in  the  person  of  the  great 
Balafre,  now  believed  themselves  possessed  of  sufficient  power 
to  control  the  Duke  of  Mayenne  and  all  his  adherents.  They 
sent  the  J esuit  Claude  Mathieu  with  a  special  memorial  to 
Philip  II.  That  monarch  was  implored  to  take  the  sceptre 
of  France,  and  to  reign  over  them,  inasmuch  as  they  most 
willingly  threw  themselves  into  his  arms.7  They  assured  him 
that  all  reasonable  people,  and  especially  the  Holy  League, 
wished  him  to  take  the  reins  of  Government,  on  condition  of 

• 

5  De  Thou,  442, 443.  « 

7  Arch,  de  Simancas  (Paris)  B.  71,  — »  cited  by  Capefigue,  Hist,  de  la 
Ligue,  &c.  vi.  64,  seqq. 


128 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXV. 


exterminating  heresy  throughout  the  kingdom  by  force  of 
arms,  of  publishing  the  Council  of  Trent,  and  of  establishing 
everywhere  the  Holy  Inquisition — an  institution  formidable 
only  to  the  wicked  and  desirable  for  the  good.  It  was  sug¬ 
gested  that  Philip  should  not  call  himself  any  longer  King  of 
Spain  nor  adopt  the  title  of  King  of  France,  hut  that  he 
should  proclaim  himself  the  Great  King,  or  make  use  of  some 
similar  designation,  not  indicating  any  specialty  hut  importing 
universal  dominion. 

Should  Philip,  however,  he  disinclined  himself  to  accept  the 
monarchy,  it  was  suggested  that  the  young  Duke  of  Guise, 
son  of  the  first  martyr  of  France,  would  be  the  most  appro¬ 
priate  personage  to  he  honoured  with  the  hand  of  the  legiti¬ 
mate  Queen  of  France,  the  Infanta  Clara  Isabella. 

But  the  Sixteen  were  reckoning  without  the  Duke  of 
Mayenne.  That  great  personage,  although  an  indifferent 
warrior  and  an  utterly  unprincipled  and  venal  statesman, 
was  by  no  means  despicable  as  a  fisherman  in  the  troubled 
waters  of  revolution.  He  knew  how  to  manage  intrigues 
with  both  sides  for  his  own  benefit.  Had  he  been  a  bachelor 
he  might  have  obtained  the  Infanta  and  shared  her  prospective 
throne.  Being  encumbered  with  a  wife  he  had  no  hope  of 
becoming  the  son-in-law  of  Philip,  and  was  determined  that 
his  nephew  Guise  should  not  enjoy  a  piece  of  good  fortune 
denied  to  himself.  The  escape  of  the  young  duke  from 
prison  had  been  the  signal  for  the  outbreak  of  jealousies 
between  uncle  and  nephew,  which  Parma  and  other  agents 
had  been  instructed  by  their  master  to  foster  to  the  utmost. 
u  They  must  be  maintained  in  such  disposition  in  regard  to 
me/'  he  said,  “  that  the  one  being  ignorant  of  my  relations  to 
the  other,  both  may  without  knowing  it  do  my  will." 9  10 

But  Mayenne,  in  this  grovelling  career  of  self-seeking,  in 
this  perpetual  loading  of  dice  and  marking  of  cards,  which 
formed  the  main  occupation  of  so  many  kings  and  princes  of 


9  Arcli.  de  Simancas  (Paris)  B.  72,  I— .  ibid.  p.  123. 

10  Arch,  de  Simancas  (Paris)  57,  — >  cited  by  Capefigue,  vi.  193. 


1591. 


POLICY  OF  MAYENNE. 


129 


the  period,  and  which  passed  for  Machiavellian  politics,  was  a 
fair  match  for  the  Spanish  king  and  his  Italian  viceroy.  He 
sent  President  Jeannin  on  special  mission  to  Philip,  asking 
for  two  armies,  one  to  he  under  his  command,  the  other 
under  that  of  Farnese,  and  assured  him  that  he  should  he 
king  himself, ,  or  appoint  any  man  he  liked  to  the  vacant 
tin  one.  Thus  he  had  secured  one  hundred  thousand  crowns 
a  month  to  carry  on  his  own  game  withal.  “  The  maintenance 
of  these  two  armies  costs  me  261,000  crowns  a  month,”  said 
Philip  to  his  envoy  Yharra.11 

And  what  was  the  result  of  all  this  expenditure  of  money 
of  all  this  lying  and  counter-lying,  of  all  this  frantic  effort  on 
the  part  of  the  most  powerful  monarch  of  the  age  to  obtain 
property  which  did  not  belong  to  him — the  sovereignty  of  a 
great  kingdom,  stocked  with  a  dozen  millions  of  human 
beings — of  all  this  endless  bloodshed  of  the  people  in  the 
interests  of  a  high-born  family  or  two,  of  all  this  infamous 
brokerage  charged  by  great  nobles  for  their  attempts  to 
transfer  kingdoms  like  private  farms  from  one  owner  to 
another  P  Time  was  to  show.  Meanwhile  men  trembled 
at  the  name  of  Philip  II.,  and  grovelled  before  him  as  the 
incarnation  of  sagacity,  high  policy,  and  king-craft. 

But  Mayenne,  while  taking  the  brokerage,  was  less  anxious 
about  the  transfer.  He  had  fine  instinct  enough  to  suspect 
that  the  Bearnese,  outcast  though  he  seemed,  might  after  all 
not  be  playing  so  desperate  a  game  against  the  League  as  it 
was  the  fashion  to  suppose.  He  knew  whether  or  not  Henry 
was  likely  to  prove  a  more  fanatical  Huguenot  in  1592  than 
he  had  shown  himself  twenty  years  before  at  the  Bartholomew 
festival.  And  he  had  wit  enough  to  foresee  that  the  “  instruc¬ 
tion”  which  the  gay  free-thinker  held  so  cautiously  in  his 
fingers  might  perhaps  turn  out  the  trump  card.  A  bold, 
valorous  Frenchman  with  a  flawless  title,  and  washed  whiter 
than  snow  by  the  freshet  of  holy  water,  might  prove  a  more 
formidable  claimant  to  the  allegiance  of  Frenchmen  than  a 

11  Ibid.  57,^-,  ibid 


vol.  hi. — K 


Chap.  XXY. 


130  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 

foreign  potentate,  even  though  hacked  by  all  the  doctors  of 
the  Sorbonne. 

The  murder  of  President  Brisson  and  his  colleagues  by  the 
confederates  of  the  sixteen  quarters,  was  in  truth  the  beginning 
of  the  end.  What  seemed  a  proof  of  supreme  power  was  the 
precursor  of  a  counter-revolution,  destined  ere  'long  to  lead 
farther  than  men  dreamed.  The  Sixteen  believed  themselves 
omnipotent.  Mayenne  being  in  their  power,  it  was  for  them 
to  bestow  the  crown  at  their  will,  or  to  hold  it  suspended  in 
air  as  long  as  seemed  best  to  them.  .  They  felt  no  doubt  that 
all  the  other  great  cities  in  the  kingdom  would  follow  the 

example  of  Paris. 

But  the  lieutenant-general  of  the  realm  felt  it  time  for 
him  to  show  that  his  authority  was  not  a  shadow  that  he 
was  not  a  pasteboard  functionary  like  the  deceased  caidinal- 
king,  Charles  X.  The  letters  entrusted  by  the  Sixteen,  to 
Claude  Mathieu  were  intercepted  by  Henry,  and,  very  pro¬ 
bably,  an  intimation  of  their  contents  was  furnished  to 
Mayenne.  At  any  rate,  the  duke,  who  lacked  not  courage 
nor  promptness  when  his  own  interests  were  concerned,  who 
felt  his  authority  slipping  away  from  him,  now  that  it  seemed 
the  object  of  the  Spaniards  to  bind  the  democratic  party  to 
themselves  by  a  complicity  in  crime,  hastened  at  once  to  Paris, 
‘  determined  to  crush  these  intrigues  and  to  punish  the  mur¬ 
derers  of  the  judges.12  The  Spanish  envoy  Ybarra,  proud, 
excitable,  violent,  who  had  been  privy  to  the  assassinations, 
and  was  astonished  that  the  deeds  had  excited  indignation 
and  fury  instead  of  the  terror  counted  upon,  remonstrated 
with  Mayenne,  intimating  that  in  times  of  civil  commotion  it 
was  often  necessary  to  be  blind  and  deaf. 

In  vain.  The  duke  carried  it  with  a  high  and  firm  hand. 

4  Dec.  He  arrested  the  ringleaders,  and  hanged  four  of  them 

1591.  in  the  basement  of  the  Louvre  within  twenty  days 
after  the  commission  of  their  crime.  The  energy  was  well- 
timed  and  perfectly  successful.  The  power  of  the  Sixteen  was 
struck  to  the  earth  at  a  blow.  The  ignoble  tyrants  became 

12  De  Thou,  xi.  44G. 


1591. 


HENRY’S  ENVOY  AT  THE  HAGUE. 


131 


in  a  moment  as’  despicable  as  they  bad  been  formidable  and 
insolent.  Crome,  mSny  fortunate  than  many  of  his  fellows, 
contrived  to  make  his  escape  out  of  the  kingdom.13 

Thus  Mayenne  had  formally  broken  with  the  democratic 
party,  so  called — with  the  market-halls  oligarchy.  In  thus 
doing,  his  ultimate  rupture  with  the  Spaniards  was  fore¬ 
shadowed.  The  next  combination  for  him  to  strive  for  would 
be  one  to  unite  the  moderate  catholics  and  the  Bearnese. 
Ah  !  if  Henry  would  but  “  instruct"  himself  out  of  hand, 
what  a  game  the  duke  might  play  ! 

The  burgess-party,  the  mild  royalists,  the  disgusted  portion 
of  the  Leaguers,  coalescing  with  those  of  the  Huguenots 
whose  fidelity  might  prove  stanch  even  against  the  religious 
apostasy  contemplated  by  their  chief — this  combination  might 
prove  an  over-match  for  the  ultra-leaguers,  the  democrats, 
and  the  Spaniards.  The  king's  name  would  be  a  tower  of 
strength  for  that  u  third  party,"  which  began  to  rear  its  head 
very  boldly  and  to  call  itself  “  Politica."  Madam  League 
might  succumb  to  this  new  rival  in  the  fickle  hearts  of  the 
French. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  year  1591,  Buzanval  had  presented 
his  credentials  to  the  States-General  at  the  Hague  26  Jan. 
as  envoy  of  Henry  IY.  In  the  speech  which  he  1591. 
made  on  this  occasion  he  expressed  the  hope  that  the  mission 
of  the  Viscount  Turenne,  his  Majesty's  envoy  to  England  and 
to  the  Netherlands,  had  made  known  the  royal  sentiments 
towards  the  States  and  the  great  satisfaction  of  the  king  with 
their  energetic  sympathy  and  assistance.  It  was  notorious,  said 
Buzanval,  that  the  King  of  Spain  for  many  years  had  been 
governed  by  no  other  motive  than  to  bring  all  the  rest  of 
Christendom  under  his  dominion,  while  at  the  same  time  he 
forced  upon  those  already  placed  under  his  sceptre  a  violent 
tyranny,  passing  beyond  all  the  bounds  that  God,  nature,  and 
reason  had  set  to  lawful  forms  of  government.  In  regard  to 
nations  born  under  other  laws  than  his,  he  had  used  the  pretext 
of  religion  for  reducing  them  to  servitude.  The  wars  stirred  up 

13  De  Thou,  xi.  447,  448. 


Chap.  XXV. 


-^22  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 

by  bis  family  in  Germany,  and  bis  recent  invasion  of  England, 
were  proofs  of  this  intention,  still  fresb  in  the  memory  of  all 
men.  Still  more  flagrant  were  bis  macbinations  in  tbe  present 
troubles  of  France.  Of  bis  dealings  with  bis  hereditary  realms, 
tbe  condition  of  tbe  noble  provinces  of  the  Netherlands,  once  so 
blooming  under  reasonable  laws,  furnished  a  sufficient  illus¬ 
tration.  You  see,  my  masters,  continued  tbe  envoy,  tbe  subtle 
plans  of  tbe  Spanish  king  and  bis  counsellors  to  reach  with  cer¬ 
tainty  tbe  object  of  their  ambition.  They  have  reflected  that 
Spain,  which  is  tbe  outermost  corner  of  Europe,  cannot  con¬ 
veniently  make  war  upon  other  Christian  realms.  They  have 
seen  that  a  central  position  is  necessary  to  enable  them  to 
stretch  their  arms  to  every  side.  They  have  remembered  that 
princes  who  in  earlier  days  were  able  to  spread  their  wings  over 
all  Christendom  had  their  throne  in  France,  like  Charles  the 
Great  and  his  descendants.  Therefore  the  king  is  now  earnestly 
bent  on  seizing  this  occasion  to  make  himself  mastei  of  Fiance. 
The  death  of  the  late  king  (Henry  III.)  had  no  sooner  occurred, 
than— as  the  blood  through  great  terror  rushes  from  the 
extremities  and  overflows  the  heart  they  heie  also,  fcaiing 
to  lose  their  opportunity  and  astonished  at  the  valour  of  our 
present  king,  abandoned  all  their  other  enterprises  in  order  to 

pour  themselves  upon  France.14 

Buzanval  further  reminded  the  States  that  Henry  had 
received  the  most  encouraging  promises  from  the  protestant 
princes  of  Germany,  and  that  so  great  a  personage  as  the 
Viscount  Turenne,  who  had  now  gone  thither  to  reap  the  fruit 
of  those  promises,  would  not  have  been  sent  on  such  a  mission 
except  that  its  result  was  certain.  The  Queen  of  England, 
too,  had  promised  his  Majesty  most  liberal  assistance. 

It  was  not  necessary  to  argue  as  to  the  close  connection 
between  the  cause  of  the  Netherlands  and  that  of  France. 
The  king  had  beaten  down  the  mutiny  of  his  own  subjects, 
and  repulsed  the  invasion  of  the  Dukes  of  Savoy  and  of 
Lorraine.  In  consideration  of  the  assistance  promised  by 
Germany  and  England — for  a  powerful  army  would  be  at  the 

14  Bor,  III.  xxviii.  551,  552. 


/ 


1591. 


SPEECH  OF  HENRY’S  ENVOY. 


133 


command  of  Henry  in  the  spring — it  might  he  said  that 
the  Netherlands  might  repose  for  a  time  and  recruit  their 
exhausted  energies,  under  the  shadow  of  these  mighty  pre¬ 
parations.13 

“  I  do  not  believe,  however/'  said  the  minister,  “  that  you 
will  all  answer  me  thus.  The  faint-hearted  and  the  inexpe¬ 
rienced  might  flatter  themselves  with  such  thoughts,  and 
seek  thus  to  cover  their  cowardice,  but  the  zealous  and  the 
courageous  will  see  that  it  is  time  to  set  sail  on  the  ship,  now 
that  the  wind  is  rising  so  freshly  and  favourably. 

“For  there  are  many  occasions  when  an  army  might  be 
ruined  for  want  of  twenty  thousand  crowns.  What  a  pity  if 
a  noble  edifice,  furnished  to  the  roof-tree,  should  fall  to  decay 
for  want  of  a  few  tiles.  No  doubt  your  own  interests  are 
deeply  connected  with  our  own.  Men  may  say  that  our  pro¬ 
posals  should  be  rejected  on  the  principle  that  the  shirt  is 
nearer  to  the  skin  than  the  coat,  but  it  can  be  easily  proved 
that  our  cause  is  one.  The  mere  rumour  of  this  army  will 
prevent  the  Duke  of  Parma  from  attacking  you.  His  forces 
will  be  drawn  to  France.  He  will  be  obliged  to  intercept  the 
crash  of  this  thunderbolt.  The  assistance  of  this  army  is 
worth  millions  to  you,  and  has  cost  you  nothing.  To  bring 
France  into  hostility  with  Spain  is  the  very  policy  that 
you  have  always  pursued  and  always  should  pursue  in  order 
to  protect  your  freedom.  You  have  always  desired  a  war 
between  France  and  Spain,  and  here  is  a  fierce  and  cruel  one 
ill  which  you  have  hazarded  nothing.  It  cannot  come  to  an 
end  without  bringing  signal  advantages  to  yourselves. 

“You  have  always  desired  an  alliance  with  a  French 
sovereign,  and  here  is  a  firm  friendship  offered  you  by  our 
king,  a  natural  alliance. 

“  You  know  how  unstable  are  most  treaties  that  are  founded 
on  shifting  interests,  and  do  not  concern  the  freedom  of  bodies 
and  souls.  The  first  are  written  with  pen  upon  paper,  and 
are  generally  as  light  as  paper.  They  have  no  roots  in  the 
heart.  Those  founded  on  mutual  assistance  on  trying  occa- 

15  Bor,  III.  xxviii.  551,  552 


134 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXV. 


sions  have  the  perpetual  strength  of  nature.  They  bring 
always  good  and  enduring  fruit  in  a  rich  soil  like  the  heart 
of  our  king  ;  that  heart  which  is  as  beautiful  and  as  pure  from 
all  untruth  as  the  lily  upon  his  shield. 

“  You  will  derive  the  first  profits  from  the  army  thus  raised. 
From  the  moment  of  its  mustering  under  a  chief  of  such 
experience  as  Turenne,  it  will  absorb  the  whole  attention  of 
Spain,  and  will  draw  her  thoughts  from  the  Netherlands 
to  France." 

All  this  and  more  in  the  same  earnest  manner  did  the 
envoy  urge  upon  the  consideration  of  the  States-General, 
concluding  with  a  demand  of  100,000  florins  as  their  con¬ 
tribution  towards  the  French  campaign.10 

His  eloquence  did  not  fall  upon  unwilling  ears  ;  for  the 
9  May,  States-General,  after  taking  time  to  deliberate, 

1591.  replied  to  the  propositions  by  an  expression  of  the 
strongest  sympathy  with,  and  admiration  for,  the  heroic 
efforts  of  the  King  of  France.  Accordingly,  notwithstanding 
their  own  enormous  expenses,  past  and  present,  and  their 
strenuous  exertions  at  that  very  moment  to  form  an  army  of 
foot  and  horse  for  the  campaign,  the  brilliant  results  of  which 
have  already  been  narrated,  they  agreed  to  furnish  the 
required  loan  of  100,000  florins  to  be  repaid  in  a  year,  besides 
six  or  seven  good  ships  of  war  to  co-operate  with  the  fleets  of 
England  and  France  upon  the  coasts  of  Normandy.17  And 
the  States  were  even  better  than  their  word. 

Before  the  end  of  autumn  of  the  year  1591,  Henry  had 
laid  siege  to  Rouen,  then  the  second  city  of  the  kingdom. 
To  leave  much  longer  so  important  a  place — dominating,  as 
it  did,  not  only  Normandy  but  a  principal  portion  of  the 
maritime  borders  of  France — under  the  control  of  the  League 
and  of  Spain  was  likely  to  be  fatal  to  Henry’s  success.  It 
was  perfectly  sound  in  Queen  Elizabeth  to  insist  as  she  did, 
with  more  than  her  usual  imperiousness  towards  her  excel¬ 
lent  brother,  that  he  should  lose  no  more  time  before 
reducing  that  city.  It  was  obvious  that  Rouen  in  the  hands 

16  Bor,  III.  xxviii.  551,  552.  17  Ibid.  552,  553. 


1591  ELIZABETH’S  ADVICE  TO  HENRY.  135 

of  her  arch-enemy  was  a  perpetual  menace  to  the  safety  of 
her  own  kingdom.  It  was  therefore  with  correct  judgment,  as 
well  as  with  that  high-flown  gallantry  so  dear  to  the  heart  of 
Elizabeth,  that  her  royal  champion  and  devoted  slave  assured 
her  of  his  determination  no  longer  to  defer  obeying  her  com¬ 
mands  in  this  respect. 

The  queen  had  repeatedly  warned  him  of  the  necessity  of 
defending  the  maritime  frontier  of  his  kingdom,  and  she  was 
not  sparing  of  her  reproaches  that  the  large  sums  which  she 
expended  in  his  cause  had  been  often  ill  bestowed.  Her 
criticisms  on  what  she  considered  his  military  mistakes  were 
not  few,  her  threats  to  withdraw  her  subsidies  frequent. 
u  Owning  neither  the  East  nor  the  West  Indies,”  she  said, 
u  we  are  unable  to  supply  the  constant  demands  upon  us  ;  and 
although  we  have  the  reputation  of  being  a  good  housewife, 
it  does  not  follow  that  we  can  be  a  housewife  for  all  the 
world.” 18  She  was  persistently  warning  the  king  of  an  attack 
upon  Dieppe,  and  rebuking  him  for  occupying  himself  with 
petty  enterprises  to  the  neglect  of  vital  points.  She  expressed 
her  surprise  that  after  the  departure  of  Parma,  he  had  not 
driven  the  Spaniards  out  of  Brittany,  without  allowing  them 
to  fortify  themselves  in  that  country.  “I  am  astonished,” 
she  said  to  him,  “  that  your  eyes  are  so  blinded  as  not  to  see 
this  danger.  Remember,  my  dear  brother,”  she  frankly 
added,  “that  it  is  not  only  France  that  I  am  aiding,  nor  arc 
my  own  natural  realms  of  little  consequence  to  me.  Believe 
me,  if  I  see  that  you  have  no  more  regard  to  the  ports  and 
maritime  places  nearest  to  us,  it  will  be  necessary  that  my 
prayers  should  serve  you  in  place  of  any  other  assistance, 
because  it  does  not  please  me  to  send  my  people  to  the 
shambles  where  they  may  perish  before  having  rendered  you 
any  assistance.  I  am  sure  the  Spaniards  will  soon  besiege 
Dieppe.  Beware  of  it,  and  excuse  my  bluntness,  for  if  in  the 
beginning  you  had  taken  the  maritime  forts,  which  are  the 
very  gates  of  your  kingdom,  Paris  would  not  have  been  so 
well  furnished,  and  other  places  nearer  the  heart  of  the 
18  Queen  to  tlie  Duke  d’Espernon,  19  Feb.  1592.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.) 


136 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXV. 


tdngdom  would  not  have  received  so  much,  foreign  assistance, 
without  which  the  others  would  have  soon  been  vanquished. 
Pardon  my  simplicity  as  belonging  to  my  own  sex  wishing  to 
give  a  lesson  to  one  who  knows  better,  hut  my  experience  in 
government  makes  me  a  little  obstinate  in  believing  that  I 
am  not  ignorant  of  that  which  belongs  to  a  king,  and  I  per- 
suade  myself  that  in  following  my  advice  you  will  not  fail  to 
conquer  your  assailants/' 19 

Before  the  end  of  the  year  Henry  had  obtained  control  of 
the  Seine,  both  above  and  below  the  city,  holding  Pont 
de  1  Arche  on  the  north — where  was  the  last  bridge  across 
the  livei  ,  that  of  Rouen,  built  by  the  English  when  they 
governed  Normandy,  being  now  in  ruins— and  Caudebec  on 
the  south  in  an  iron  grasp.  Several  war-vessels  sent  by  the 
Hollanders,  according  to  the  agreement  with  Buzanval,  cruised 
in  the  north  of  the  river  below  Caudebec,  and  rendered  much 
service  to  the  king  in  cutting  off  supplies  from  the  beleaguered 
place,  while  the  investing  army  of  Henry,  numbering  twenty- 
five  thousand  foot  inclusive  of  the  English  contingent, 
and  three  thousand  Netherlander— and  ten  thousand  ca¬ 
valry,  nearly  all  French,  was  fast  reducing  the  place  to  ex¬ 
tremities. 


Parma,  as  usual,  in  obedience  to  his  master's  orders,  but 


19  Queen  to  tlie  King  of  France,  1 
March,  1592.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.  in 

French,  in  her  own  hand.)  “  The 
poor  king,”  said  Umton,  “must  he 
miraculously  defended  by  Hod,  or  else 
he  cannot  long  subsist.  He  wantetli 
means  and  has  need  of  miracles,  and 
without  herMajesty  supholding  would 
quickly  perish.  She  only  giveth  life 
to  his  actions  and  terror 'to  his  ene¬ 
mies.”  To  Burghley,  from  Dieppe,  15 
March,  1592.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.) 

“  Knowing,”  said  Sir  Robert  Cecil, 
"  that  no  place  in  all  France,  no,  not 
Paris  itself,  was  of  more  importance 
to  be  recovered  than  Rouen  and  New- 
liaven,  the  Queen  levied  and  sent  over 
troops  with  such  speed  as  the  like  has 
seldom  been  seen,  being  performed 
within  twenty  days,  sending  also  a 
nobleman  of  her  own  realm  to  conduct 


them,  but  how  contrarily  the  King 
took  another  course  to  seek  other 
towns  and  places,  and  to  permit  her 
M.  s  forces  to  remain  about  Dieppe 
almost  two  months  without  any  use 
but  to  spend  her  M/s  money,  and  to 
waste  her  people,  and  instead  of  be¬ 
sieging  of  Rouen,  suffered  it  to  be  vic¬ 
tualled,  manned,  and  fortified  in  such 
sort  as  experience  hath  taught  the 
King  liow  difficult,  or  rather  how  de¬ 
sperate,  it  hath  been  as  yet  to  recover 

jb,, . And  of  this  error  -hath 

followed  the  opportunity  of  the  Duke 
of  Parma’s  entering  with  so  mighty  an 
army,  and  the  King’s  professed  disa¬ 
bility  to  fight  with  him.”  Mr.  Wilkes’s 
Instructions  to  the  French  King  ;  the 
whole  in  Sir  R.  Cecil’s  hand  writing  • 
19  March,  1592.  %  (S.  P.  Office  MS.)  ’ 


1592.  COMPLAINTS  OP  THE  DUKE  OF  PARMA.  137 

entirely  against  his  own  judgment,  had  again  left  the  rising 
young  general  of  the  Netherlands  to  proceed  from  one  triumph 
to  another,  while  he  transferred  beyond  the  borders  of  that 
land  which  it  was  his  first  business  to  protect,  the  whole 
weight  of  his  military  genius  and  the  better  portion  of  his 
well-disciplined  forces. 

Most  bitterly  and  indignantly  did  he  express  himself,  both 
at  the  outset  and  during  the  whole  progress  of  the  expedition, 
concerning  the  utter  disproportions  between  the  king’s  means 
and  aims.  The  want  of  money  was  the  cause  of  wholesale 
disease,  desertion,  mutiny,  and  death  in  his  slender  army. 
Such  great  schemes  as  his  master’s  required,  as  he  per¬ 
petually  urged,  liberality  of  expenditure  and  measures  of 
breadth.  He  protested  that  he  was  not  to  blame  for  the  ruin 
likely  to  come  upon  the  whole  enterprise.  He  had  besought, 
remonstrated,  reasoned  with  the  king  in  vain.  He  had  seen 
his  beard  first  grow,  he  said,  in  the  king’s  service,  and  he  had 
grown  gray  in  that  service,  but  rather  than  be  kept  longer  in 
such  a  position,  without  money,  men,  or  means  to  accomplish 
the  great  purposes  on  which  he  was  sent,  he  protested  that 
he  would  abandon  his  office  and  retire  into  the  woods  to  feed 
on  roots.20  Repeatedly  did  he  implore  his  master  for  a  large 
and  powerful  army  ;  for  money  and  again  money.  The  royal 
plans  should  be  enforced  adequately  or  abandoned  entirely. 
To  spend  money  in  small  sums,  as  heretofore,  was  only  throw¬ 
ing  it  into  the  sea.21 

It  was  deep  in  the  winter  however  before  he  could  fairly 
come  to  the  rescue  of  the  besieged  city.  Towards  jamiaiy 
the  end  of  J anuary,  1592,  he  moved  out  of  Hainault,  1592. 
and  once  more  made  his  junction  at  Guise  with  the  Duke  of 
Mayenne.  At  a  review  of  his  forces  on  16th  January,  1592, 
Alexander  found  himself  at  the  head  of  thirteen  thousand 
five  hundred  and  sixteen  infantry  and  four  thousand  and 
sixty-one  cavalry.  The  Duke  of  Mayenne’s  army,  for  pay¬ 
ment  of  which  that  personage  received  from  Philip  100,000 

20  Parma  to  Philip,  11  March,  1592.  “Que  antes  me  determinaria  a  reco- 
germe  en  un  bosque  a  comer  raices.”  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.)  21  Ibid. 


138 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXV. 


dollars  a  montli;  besides  10?000  dollars  a  month  for  his  own 
pocket,  ought  to  have  numbered  ten  thousand  foot  and  three 

thousand  horse,  according  to  contract,  but  was  in  reality 
much  less.22 

The  Duke  of  Montemarciano,  nephew  of  Gregory  XIV. 
had  brought  two  thousand  Swiss,  furnished  by  the  pontiff  to 
the  cause  of  the  League,  and  the  Duke  of  Lorraine  had  sent 
his  kinsmen,  the  Counts  Chaligny  and  Vaudemont,  with  a 
force  of  seven  hundred  lancers  and  cuirassiers.23 

The  town  of  Fere  was  assigned  in  pledge  to  Farnese  to 
hold  as  a  convenient  mustering-place  and  station  in  proximity 
to  his  own  borders,  and,  as  usual,  the  chief  command  over  the 
united  armies  was  placed  in  his  hands.  These  arrangements 
concluded,  the  allies  moved  slowly  forward  much  in  the  same 


$115,981 

44,505 


From  a  statement  in  the  Archives  of  Simancas,  dated  25  Nov.  1591  it 
appears  that  the  force  called  the  “  greater  army  of  France  ”  (el  ejercito  mavoi 

de  Francia),  provided  by  Philip,  and  under  command  of  Farnese,  was  com. 
posed  of — 

Infantry  . .  . .  . .  23,512  Costing  per  month 

^a7alr7  .  4,969 

Other  expenses  of  the  army,  in¬ 
cluding  $12,629  per  month  for 
artillery  ;  salaries,  of  which 
the  Duke  of  Parma’s  was  $3600 
per  month,  and  other  contin- 

.  gencies  . 

Besides  a  large  monthly  sum  for 

secret  military  service.  _  _ _ 

Thus  the  whole  force  was  . .  28,481  men,  costing  per  month  $202  807 

But  there  were  7681  wanting  to 
the.  number  determined  upon, 
which  addedwould  givetotalof  7,681 


42,321 


T1  -  .  .  ,  ,  ^  ,  36,162  men, costing  per  month  $250,871 

1  he  force  included — of  Spanish  infantry  ..  ..  . .  6,078  men. 

German  „  ..  *  ..  .  11518 

The  rest  being  Walloons  and  Italians.  ’  ”  ’ 

lesser  army  of  France  (ejercito  menor  de  Francia)  was  stated  at— 

1  JxJJx  i  0t .  costing  per  month  $49,912 

3>000  llorse  .  „  „  40  750 


_  Total  .  99  662 

and  was  commanded  by  the  Duke  of  Mayenne,  but  paid  by  the  King  of  Spain. 

lo  the  Duke  of  Mayenne,  in  person,  according  to  order,  $10,000  per  month. 
— (  A  la  persona  del  Duque  de  Umena  conforme  la  orden.”) 

The  total  of  the  King’s  army  in  the  Netherlands  was  stated  at  29,233  men, 
a  a™ontlll7  cost  °f  $149,187  ;  but  there  was  a  large  number  wanting.  The 
total  force  of  the  three  armies  paid  for  by  Philip  was  intended  to  be  86  561 
men,  at  a  monthly  cost  of  $542,428. 

23  De  Thou,  t.  xi.  452,  seqq.  Bentivoglio,  P.  II.  lib.  vi.  p.  356-369. 


1592. 


SIEGE  OF  ROUEN. 


139 


order  as  in  the  previous  year.  The  young  Duke  of  Guise,  who 
had  just  made  his  escape  from  the  prison  of  Tours,  where  he 
had  been  held  in  durance  since  the  famous  assassination  of 
his  father  and  uncle,  and  had  now  come  to  join  his  uncle 
Mayenne,  led  the  vanguard.  Kanuccio,  son  of  the  duke,  rode 
also  in  the  advance,  while  two  experienced  commanders, 
Yitry  and  De  la  Chatre,  as  well  as  the  famous  Marquis  del 
Vasto,  formerly  general  of  cavalry  in  the  Netherlands,  who 
had  been  transferred  to  Italy  hut  was  now  serving  in  the 
League's  army  as  a  volunteer,  were  associated  with  the  young 
princes.  Parma,  Mayenne,  and  Montemarciano  rode  in  the 
battalia,  the  rear  being  under  command  of  the  Duke  of 
Aumale  and  the  Count  Chaligny.  Wings  of  cavalry  pro¬ 
tected  the  long  trains  of  wagons  which  were  arranged  on 
each  flank  of  the  invading  army.  The  march  was  very  slow, 
it  being  Farnese's  uniform  practice  to  guard  himself  scrupu¬ 
lously  against  any  possibility  of  surprise  and  to  entrench 
himself  thoroughly  at  nightfall.21 

By  the  middle  of  February  they  reached  the  vicinity  of 
Aumale  in  Picardy.  Meantime  Henry,  on  the  news  of  the 
advance  of  the  relieving  army,  had  again  the  same  problem 
to  solve  that  had  been  presented  to  him  before  Paris  in  the 
summer  of  1590.  Should  he  continue  in  the  trenches,  pressing 
more  and  more  closely  the  city  already  reduced  to  great 
straits  ?  Should  he  take  the  open  field  against  the  invaders 
and  once  more  attempt  to  crush  the  League  and  its  most 
redoubtable  commander  in  a  general  engagement  ?  Biron 
strenuously  advised  the  continuance  of  the  siege.  Turenne, 
now,  through  his  recent  marriage  with  the  heiress,  called  Due 
de  Bouillon,  great  head  of  the  Huguenot  party  in  France, 
counselled  as  warmly  the  open  attack.  Henry,  hesitating 
more  than  was  customary  with  him,  at  last  decided  on  a 
middle  course.  The  resolution  did  not  seem  a  very  wise  one, 
but  the  king,  who  had  been  so  signally  out-generalled  in  the 
preceding  campaign  by  the  grQat  Italian,  was  anxious  to 
avoid  his  former  errors,  and  might  perhaps  fall  into  as 

24  Bentivoglio,  uU  sup.  De  Tliou,  ubi  sup.  Dondini,  iii.  474,  seqq. 


140 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXV. 


great  ones  by  attempting  two  inconsistent  lines  of  action. 
Leaving  Biron  in  command  of  the  infantry  and  a  portion  of 
the  horse  to  continue  the  siege,  he  took  the  field  himself 
with  the  greater  part  of  the  cavalry,  intending  to  intercept 
and  harass  the  enemy  and  to  prevent  his  manifest  purpose 
of  throwing  reinforcements  and  supplies  into  the  invested 
city.  t 

Proceeding  to  Neufchatel  and  Aumale,  he  soon  found  him¬ 
self  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Leaguers,  and  it  was  not  long 
before  skirmishing  began.  At  this  time,  on  a  memorable 
occasion,  Henry,  forgetting  as  usual  in  his  eagerness  for  the 
joys  of  the  combat  that  he  was  not  a  young  captain  of  cavalry 
with  his  spurs  to  win  by  dashing  into  every  mad  adventure 
that  might  present  itself,  but  a  king  fighting  for  his  crown, 
with  the  welfare  of  a  whole  people  depending  on  his  fortunes, 
thought  proper  to  place  himself  at  the  head  of  a  handful  of 
troopers  to  reconnoitre  in  person  the  camp  of  the  Leaguers. 
Starting  with  five  hundred  horse,  and  ordering  Lavardin  and 
Grivry  to  follow  with  a  larger  body,  while  the  Dukes  of  Nevers 
and  Longueville  were  to  move  out,  should  it  prove  necessary, 
in  force,  the  king  rode  forth  as  merrily  as  to  a  hunting  party 
drove  in  the  scouts  and  pickets  of  the  confederated  armies’ 
and,  advancing  still  farther  in  his  investigations,  soon  found 
himself  attacked  by  a  cavalry  force  of  the  enemy  much 
superior  to  his  own.  A  skirmish  began,  and  it  was  necessary 
for  the  little  troop  to  beat  a  hasty  retreat,  fighting  as  it  ran. 
It  was  not  long  before  Henry  was  recognised  by  the  enemy, 
and  the  chase  became  all  the  more  lively  ;  George  Basti,  the 
famous  Albanian  trooper,  commanding  the  force  which 
pressed  most  closely  upon  the  king.  The  news  spread  to  the 
camp  of  the  League  that  the  Bearnese  was  the  leader  of  the 
skirmishers.  Mayenne  believed  it,  and  urged  the  instant 
advance  of  the  flying  squadron  and  of  the  whole  vanguard. 
Farnese  refused.  It  was  impossible  that  the  king  should  be 
there,  he  said,  doing  picket  duty  at  the  head  of  a  company. 
It  was  a  clumsy  ambush  to  bring  on  a  general  engagement 
in  the  open  field,  and  he  was  not  to  be  drawn  out  of  his 


1592. 


NARROW  ESCAPE  OF  THE  KINO. 


141 


trenches  into  a  trap  by  such  a  shallow  device.  A  French 
captain,  who  by  command  of  Henry  had  purposely  allowed 
himself  to  be  taken,  informed  his  captors  that  the  skirmishers 
were  in  reality  supported  by  a  heavy  force  of  infantry.  This 
suggestion  of  the  ready  Bearnese  confirmed  the  doubts  of 
'  Alexander.  Meantime  the  skirmishing  steeplechase  went  on 
before  his  eyes.  The  king  dashing  down  a  hill  received  an 
arquebus  shot  in  his  side,  but  still  rode  for  his  life.  Lavardin 
and  Grivry  came  to  the  rescue,  but  a  panic  seized  their  fol¬ 
lowers  as  the  rumour  flew  that  the  king  was  mortally 
wounded — was  already  dead— so  that  th.ey  hardly  brought  a 
sufficient  force  to  beat  back  the  Leaguers.  Givry's  horse  was 
soon  killed  under  him,  and  his  own  thigh  crushed  ;  Lavardin 
was  himself  dangerously  wounded.  The  king  was  more  hard 
pressed  than  ever,  men  were  falling  on  every  side  of  him, 
when  four  hundred  French  dragoons — as  a  kind  of  musketeers 
who  rode  on  hacks  to  the  scene  of  action  but  did  their  work 
on  foot,  were  called  at  that  day — now  dismounted  and  threw 
themselves  between  Henry  and  his  pursuers.  Nearly  every 
man  of  them  laid  down  his  life,  but  they  saved  the  king's. 
Their  vigorous  hand  to  hand  fighting  kept  off  the  assailants 
*  until  Nevers  and  Longueville  received  the  king  at  the  gates 
of  Aumale  with  a  force  before  which  the  Leaguers  were  fain  to 
retreat  as  rapidly  as  they  had  come.25 


25  Bentivoglio,  ubi  sup.  Dondini, 
iii.  480-494.  Coloma,  v.  81,  seqq., 
who  gives  the  date  of  this  remarkable 
skirmish  as  Feb.  16,  while  Umton 
furnishes  a  description  of  the  affair  in 

his  letter  of  Both  were  present 

on  the  ground. 

“  The  king  was  most  unhappily  shot 
into  the  lowest  part  of  his  reins,  which 
did  nothing  amaze  him,  and  he  not¬ 
withstanding,  with  great  resolution, 
comforted  the  rest,  and  made  his  re¬ 
treat . The  shot  entered 

with  obliquity  downwards  into  the 
flesh,  and  not  directly  into  the  body, 
so  that  great  hope  is  received  of  his 
short  recovery,  and  the  surgeon  is  of 
opinion  that  no  vital  part  is  offended.” 
Umton  (who  made  the  whole  cam¬ 


paign  with  the  King)  to  Burghley, 

VtSt’  159s-  (s-  p-  Office  MS.) 

Sir  E.  Stafford,  who  died  towards 
the  end  of  1590,  was  succeeded  as 
ambassador  to  Henry  IY.  by  Sir 
Henry  Umton,  or  Umpton,  son  of  Sir 
Edward  Umpton,  by  Anne,  relict  of 
John  Dudley,  Earl  of  Warwick,  and 
eldest  daughter  of  Edward  Seymour, 
Duke  of  Somerset.  In  the  spring  of 
this  year  he  challenged  the  Duke  of 
Guise  for  speaking  of  Queen  Elizabeth 
“  impudently,  lightly,  and  overboldly, 
whose  sacred  person  lie  represented.” 
He  proposed  to  meet  the  Duke  with 
whatever  arms  he  should  choose,  and 
on  horseback  or  foot.  “Nor  would  I 
have  you  to  think,”  said  the  envoy, 
“  any  inequality  of  person  between  us, 


142 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXV. 


In  this  remarkable  skirmish  of  Aumale  the  opposite  quali¬ 
ties  of  Alexander  and  of  Henry  were  signally  illustrated.  The 
king,  by  his  constitutional  temerity,  by  his  almost  puerile 
love  of  confronting  danger  for  the  danger’s  sake,  was  on  the 
verge  of  sacrificing  himself  with  all  the  hopes  of  his  house 
and  of  the  nobler  portion  of  his  people  for  an  absolute  nothing 
while  the  duke,  out  of  his  superabundant  caution,  peremp¬ 
torily  refused  to  stretch  out  his  hand  and  seize  the  person  of 
his  great  enemy  when  directly  within  his  grasp.  Dead  or 
alive,  the  Bearnese  was  unquestionably  on  that  day  in  the 
power  of  Farnese,  and  with  him  the  whole  issue  of  the  cam¬ 
paign  and  of  the  war.  Never  were  the  narrow  limits  that 
separate  valour  on  the  one  side  and  discretion  on  the  other 
from  unpardonable  lunacy  more  nearly  effaced  than  on  that 
occasion. 

When  would  such  an  opportunity  occur  again  ? 

The  king’s  wound  proved  not  very  dangerous,  although  for 
many  days  troublesome,  and  it  required,  on  account  of  his 
general  state  of  health,  a  thorough  cure.  Meantime  the 
royalists  fell  back  from  Aumale  and  Neufchatel,  both  of  which 
places  were  at  once  occupied  by  the  Leaguers. 

In  pursuance  of  his  original  plan,  the  Duke  of  Parma  ad¬ 
vanced  with  his  customary  steadiness  and  deliberation  towards 
Kouen.  It  was  his  intention  to  assault  the  king’s  army  in 
its  entrenchments  in  combination  with  a  determined  sortie 
to  be  made  by  the  besieged  garrison.  His  preparations  for 
the  attack  were  ready  on  the  26th  February,  when  he  sud¬ 
denly  received  a  communication  from  De  Villars,  who  had 
thus  fai  most  ably  and  gallantly  conducted  the  defence  of 
the  place,  infoiming  him  that  it  was  no  longer  necessary  to 
make  a  general  attack.  On  the  day  before  he  had  made  a 
sally  from  the  four  gates  of  the  city,  had  fallen  upon  the 


I  being  issued  of  as  great  "a  race  and 
noble  liouse  every  way  as  yourself. 

....  If  you  consent  not  to  meet 
me,  I  will  bold  you,  and  cause  you  to 
be  generally  beld,  for  tbe  errantest 
coward,  and  most  slanderous  slave 


tliat  lives  in  all  France.”  Nothing 
came  ot  the  challenge.  Umpton  died 
four  years  afterwards  in  the  French 
King’s  camp  at  La  Fere,  8  July,  1596. 
Vide  Fuller’s  Worthies,  vol.  i.  pp.  91 
92  (ed.  1811).  ’ 


1592.  COUNT  CHALIGNY  MADE  PRISONER.  143 

besiegers  in  great  force,  bad  wounded  Biron  and  killed  six 
•  hundred  of  his  soldiers,  had  spiked  several  pieces  of  artillery 
and  captured  others  which  he  had  successfully  brought  into 
the  town,  and  had  in  short  so  damaged  the  enemy’s  works 
and  disconcerted  him  in  all  his  plans,  that  he  was  confident 
of  holding  the  place  longer  than  the  king  could  afford  to 
stay  in  front  of  him.26  All  he  wished  was  a  moderate  rein¬ 
forcement  of  men  and  munitions.  Farnese  by  no  means  sym¬ 
pathized  with  the  confident  tone  of  Villars  nor  approved 
of  his  proposition.  He  had  come  to  relieve  Rouen  and  to 
raise  the  siege,  and  he  preferred  to  do  his  work  thoroughly. 
Mayenne  was  however  most  heartily  in  favour  of  taking  the 
advice  of  Villars.  He  urged  that  it  was  difficult  for  the 
Bearnese  to  keep  an  army  long  in  the  field,  still  more  so  in 
the  trenches.  Let  them  provide  for  the  immediate  wants  of 
the  city  ;  then  the  usual  process  of  decomposition  would  soon 
be  witnessed  in  the  ill-paid,  ill-fed,  desultory  forces  of  the 
heretic  pretender. 

Alexander  deferred  to  the  wishes  of  Mayenne,  although 
against  his  better  judgment.  Eight  hundred  infantry  were 
successfully  sent  into  Rouen.  The  army  of  the  League  then 
countermarched  into  Picardy  near  the  confines  of  Artois.27 

They  were  closely  followed  by  Henry  at  the  head  of  his 
cavalry,  and  lively  skirmishes  were  of  frequent  occurrence. 
In  a  military  point  of  view  none  of  these  affairs  were  of  con¬ 
sequence,  but  there  was  one  which  partook  at  once  of  the 
comic  and  the  pathetic.  For  it  chanced  that  in  a  cavalry 
action  of  more  than  common  vivacity  the  Count  Chaligny 
found  himself  engaged  in  a  hand  to  hand  conflict  with  a  very 
dashing  swordsman,  who,  after  dealing  and  receiving  many 
severe  blows,  at  last  succeeded  in  disarming  the  count  and 
taking  him  prisoner.  It  was  the  fortune  of  war,  and,  but  a 
few  days  before,  might  have  been  the  fate  of  the  great  Henry 
himself.  But  Chaligny’s  mortification  at  his  captivity  became 

26  Parma  to  Philip,  11  March,  1592.  [  27  Bentivoglio,  ubi  sup.  Dondini, 

(Arch,  de  Sim.  MS.)  Compare  Benti-  iii.  497-630.  Coloma,  v.  85-95.  Me, 
voglio,  ubi  sup.  De  Thou,  xi.  470,  ,  teren,  xvi.  302,  303.  Bor.  III.  xxviii. 


144 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXV. 


intense  when  he  discovered  that  the  knight  to  whom  he  had 
surrendered  was  no  other  than  the  king's  jester.28  That  he, 
a  chieftain  of  the  Holy  League,  the  long-descended  scion  of 
the  illustrious  house  of  Lorraine,  brother  of  the  great  Duke 
of  Mercoeur,  should  become  the  captive  of  a  Huguenot  buffoon 
seemed  the  most  stinging  jest  yet  perpetrated  since  fools  had 
come  in  fashion.  The  famous  Chicot — who  was  as  fond  of  a 
battle  as  of  a  gibe,  and  who  was  almost  as  reckless  a  rider  as 
his  master— proved  on  this  occasion  that  the  cap  and  hells 
could  covei  as  much  magnanimity  as  did  the  most  chivalrous 
crest.  Although  desperately  wounded  in  the  struggle  which 
had  resulted  in  his  triumph,  he  generously  granted  to  the 
Count  his  fieedom  without  ransom.  The  proud  Lorramer 
1  eturned  to  his  Leaguers  and  the  poor  fool  died  afterwards  of 
his  wounds.29 

The  army  of  the  allies  moved  through  Picardy  towards  the 
confines  of  Artois,  and  sat  down  leisurely  to  beleaguer  Rue, 
a  low-lying  place  on  the  banks  and  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Somme,  the  only  town  in  the  province  which  still  held  for  the 
king.  It  was  sufficiently  fortified  to,  withstand  a  good  deal 
of  battering,  and  it  certainly  seemed  mere  trifling  for  the 
great  Duke  of  Parma  to  leave  the  Netherlands  in  such  con¬ 
fusion,  with  young  Maurice  of  Nassau  carrying  everything 
before  him,  and  to  come  all  the  way  into  Normandy  in  order, 
with  the  united  armies  of  Spain  and  the  League,  to  besiege 
the  insignificant  town  of  Rue.  . 

And  this  was  the  opinion  of  Farnese,  but  he  had  chosen 
throughout  the  campaign  to  show  great  deference  to  the 
judgment  of  Mayenne.  Meantime  the  month  of  March  wore 
away,  and  what  had  been  predicted  came  to  pass.  Henry's 
forces  dwindled  away  as  usual.  His  cavaliers  rode  off  to 
forage  for  themselves,  when  their  battles  were  denied  them, 
and  the  king  was  now  at  the  head  of  not  more  than  sixteen 
thousand  foot  and  five  thousand  horse.  On  the  other  hand 
the  Leaguers'  army  had  been  melting  quite  as  rapidly.  With 

58  De  Thou,  ubi  sup.  468.  Umton  to  Burghlev,  »  Feb.  1592.  (S.  P  Office 

29  De  Thou,  loc.  cit. 


1502. 


SIEGE  OF  RUE. 


145 


the  death  of  Pope  Sfondrato,  his  nephew  Montemarciano  had 
disappeared  with  his  two  thousand  Swiss  ;  while  the  French 
cavalry  and  infantry,  ill-fed  and  uncomfortable,  were  dimi¬ 
nishing  daily.  Especially  the  Walloons,  Flemings,  and  other 
Netherlander  of  Parma's  army,  took  advantage  of  their  prox¬ 
imity  to  the  borders  and  escaped  in  large  numbers  to  their 
own  homes.  It  was  but  meagre  and  profitless  campaigning 
on  both  sides  during  those  wretched  months  of  winter  and 
early  spring,  although  there  was  again  an  opportunity  for  Sir 
Roger  Williams,  at  the  head  of  two  hundred  musketeers  and 
one  hundred  and  fifty  pikemen,  to  make  one  of  his  brilliant 
skirmishes  under  the  eye  of  the  Bearnese.  Surprised  and 
without  armour,  he  jumped,  in  doublet  and  hose,  on  horse¬ 
back,  and  led  his  men  merrily  against  five  squadrons  of 
Spanish  and  Italian  horse,  and  six  companies  of  Spanish  in¬ 
fantry  ;  singled  out  and  unhorsed  the  leader  of  the  Spanish 
troopers,  and  nearly  cut  off  the  head  of  the  famous 
Albanian  chief  George  Basti  with  one  swinging  blow  of  his 
sword.  Then,  being  reinforced  by  some  other  English  com¬ 
panies,  he  succeeded  in  driving  the  whole  body  of  Italians 
and  Spaniards,  with  great  loss,  quite  into  their  entrenchments. 
“.The  king  doth  commend  him  very  highly,"  said  Umton, 
“  and  doth  more  than  wonder  at  the  valour  of  our  nation.  I 
never  heard  him  give  more  honour  to  any  service  nor  to  any 
man  than  he  doth  to  Sir  Roger  Williams  and  the  rest,  whom 
he  held  as  lost  men,  and  for  which  he  has  caused  public 
thanks  to  be  given  to  God."  30 

At  last  Villars,  who  had  so  peremptorily  rejected  assist¬ 
ance  at  the  end  of  February,  sent  to  say  that  if  he  were  not 
relieved  by  the  middle  of  April  he  should  be  obliged  to  sur¬ 
render  the  city.  If  the  siege  were  not  raised  by  the  twen¬ 
tieth  of  the  month  he  informed  Parma,  to  his  profound 
astonishment,  that  Rouen  would  be  in  Henry's  hands.31 

In  effecting  this  result  the  strict  blockade  maintained  by 
the  Dutch  squadron  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and  the  reso- 

30  Unton  to  Burghley,  21  April,  1592.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.) 

31  Bentivoglio,  Dondini,  Coloma,  Meteren,  Bor,  uU  sup.  • 

VOL.  ITT. — L 


146 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap  XXV. 


lute  manner  in  which  those  cruisers  dashed  at  every  vessel 
attempting  to  bring  relief  to  Bouen,  were  mainly  instrumental. 
As  usual  with  the  stern  Hollanders  and  Zeelanders  when 
engaged  at  sea  with  the  Spaniards,  it  was  war  to  the  lrnife. 
Early  in  April  twelve  large  vessels,  well  armed  and  manned, 
attempted  to  break  the  blockade.  A  combat  ensued,  at  the 
end  of  which  eight  of  the  Spanish  ships  were  captured,  two 
were  sunk,  and  two  were  set  on  fire  in  token  of  victory,  every 
man  on  board  of  all  being  killed  and  thrown  into  the  sea. 
Queen  Elizabeth  herself  gave  the  first  news  of  this  achieve¬ 
ment  to  the  Dutch  envoy  in  London.  u  And  in  truth/'  said 
he,  “  her  Majesty  expressed  herself,  in  communicating  these 
tidings,  with  such  affection  and  extravagant  joy  to  the  glory 
and  honour  of  our  nation  and  men-of-war's-men,  that  it  won¬ 
derfully  delighted  me,  and  did  me  good  into  my  very  heart 
to  hear  it  from  her."  32 

Instantly  Farnese  set  himself  to  the  work  which,  had  he 
followed  his  own  judgment,  would  already  have  been  accom¬ 
plished.  Henry  with  his  cavalry  had  established  himself  at 
Dieppe  and  Arques,  within  a  distance  of  five  or  six  leagues 
from  the  infantry  engaged  in  the  siege  of  Bouen.  Alexander 
saw  the  profit  to  be  derived  from  the  separation  between  the 
different  portions  of  the  enemy's  forces,  and  marched  straight 
upon  the  enemy's  entrenchments.  He  knew  the  disadvantage 
of  assailing  a  strongly  fortified  camp,  but  believed  that  by  a 
well-concerted,  simultaneous  assault  by  Yillars  from  within 
and  the  Leaguers  from  without,  the  king's  forces  would  be 
compelled  to  raise  the  siege  or  be  cut  up  in  their  trenches. 

But  Henry  did  not  wait  for  the  attack.  He  had  changed 
his  plan,  and,  for  once  in  his  life,  substituted  extreme  caution 
for  his  constitutional  temerity.  Neither  awaiting  the  assault 
upon  his  entrenchments  nor  seeking  his  enemy  in  the  open 
field,  he  ordered  the  whole  camp  to  be  broken  up,  and  on  the 
20th  of  April  raised  the  siege.33 


32  Noel  de  Caron  to  the  States- 
General,  22  April,  1592.  (Hague 
Archives  MS.) 


33  Ibid.  Parma  to  Philip,  25  April, 
1592.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.)  Same 
to  same,  2  June,  1592.  Ibid. 


1592. 


RELIEF  OF  ROUEN. 


147 


Fai  nese  marched  into  Rouen,  where  the  Leaguers  were 
received  with  tumultuous  joy,  and  this  city,  most  important 
for  the  purposes  of  the  League  and  for  Philip's  ulterior 
designs,  was  thus  wrested  from  the  grasp  just  closing  upon  it. 
Henry's  main  army  now  concentrated  itself  in  the  neighbour¬ 
hood  of  Dieppe,  hut  the  cavalry  under  his  immediate  superin¬ 
tendence  continued  to  harass  the  Leaguers.  It  was  now 
determined  to  lay  siege  to  Caudebec,  on  the  right  hank  of  the 
Seine,  three  leagues  below  Rouen ;  the  possession  of  this 
place  by  the  enemy  ,  being  a  constant  danger  and  difficulty  to 
Rouen,  whose  supplies  by  the  Seine  were  thus  cut  off. 

Alexander,  as  usual,  superintended  the  planting  of  the 
batteries  against  the  place.  He  had  been  suffering  during 
the  whole  campaign  with  those  dropsical  ailments  which 
were  making  life  a  torture  to  him  ;  yet  his  indomitable  spirit 
rose  superior  to  his  physical  disorders,  and  he  wrought  all 
day  long  on  foot  or  on  horseback,  when  he  seemed  only  fit  to 
be  placed  on  his  bed  as  a  rapid  passage  to  his  grave.  On  this 
occasion,  in  company  with  the  Italian  engineer  Properzio  he 
had  been  for  some  time  examining  with  critical  nicety  the 
preliminaries  for  the  siege,  when  it  was  suddenly  observed 
by  those  around  him  that  he  was  growing  pale.  It  then 
appeared  that  he  had  received  a  musket-ball  between  the  ‘ 
"wrist  and  the  elbow,  and  had  been  bleeding  profusely  ;  but 
had  not  indicated  by  a  word  or  the  movement  of  a  muscle 
that  he"  had  been  wounded,  so  intent  was  he  upon  carrying 
out  the  immediate  task  to  which  he  had  set  himself.  It  was 
indispensable,  however,  that  he  should  now  take  to  his  couch. 
The  wound  was  not  trifling,  and  to  one  in  his  damaged  and 
dropsical  condition  it  was  dangerous..  Fever  set  in,  with  symp¬ 
toms  of  gangrene,  and  it  became  necessary  to  entrust  the 
command  of  the  League  to  Mayenne.34  But  it  was  hardly  con¬ 
cealed  from  Parma  that  the  duke  was  playing  a  double  game. 
Prince  Ranuccio,  according  to  his  father's  express  wish,  was 
placed  provisionally  at  the  head  of  the  Flemish  forces.  This 

of 'p^ma  last  dtidT^1,  Col0ma'  De  Thou>  Meteren>  B°r,  nbi  sup.  (Letter 


148 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXV. 


was  conceded,  however,  with  much  heart-burning,  and  with 

consequences  easily  to  he  imagined. 

Meantime  Caudebec  fell  at  once.  Henry  did  nothing  to 
relieve  it,  and  the  place  could  offer  hut  slight  resistance  to 
the  force  arrayed  against  it.  The  hulk  of  the  king  s  army 
was  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Dieppe,  where  they  had  been 
recently  strengthened  by  twenty  companies  of  Netherlander 
and  Scotchmen  brought  by  Count  Philip  Nassau. 5  The 
League’s  headquarters  were  in  the  village  of  Yvetot,  capital 
of  the  realm  of  the  whimsical  little  potentate  so  long  renowned 
under  that  name.36 

The  king,  in  pursuance  of  the  plan  he  had  marked  out  for 
3  May,  himself,  restrained  his  skirmishing  more  than  was 
1592.  his  wont.  Nevertheless  he  lay  close  to  Yvetot.  His 
cavalry,  swelling  and  falling  as  usual  like  an  Alpine  toirent,  had 
now  filled  up  its  old  channels  again,  for  once  mor e  the  mountain 
chivalry  had  poured  themselves  around  their  king.  With  ten 
thousand  horsemen  he  was  now  pressing  the  Leaguers,  from  time 
to  time,  very  hard,  and  on  one  occasion  the  skirmishing  be¬ 
came  so' close  and  so  lively  that  a  general  engagement  seemed 
imminent.  Young  Eanuccio  had  a  horse  shot  under  him, 
and  his  father— suffering  as  he  was— had  himself  dragged  out 
'  of  bed  and  brought  on  a  litter  into  the  field,  where  he  was  set 
on  horseback,  trampling  on  wounds  and  disease,  and,  as  it 
were,  on  death  itself,  that  he  might  by  his  own  unsurpassed 
keenness  of  eye  and  quickness  of  resource  protect  the  army 
which  had  been  entrusted  to  his  care.  The  action  continued 
all  day ;  young  Bentivoglio,  nephew  of  the  famous  cardinal, 
historian  and  diplomatist,  receiving  a  bad  wound  m  the  leg, 
as  he  fought  gallantly  at  the  side  of  Eanuccio.  Carlo 
Coloma  also  distinguished  himself  in  the  engagement.  Night 
separated  the  combatants  before  either  side  had  gained  a 
manifest  advantage,  and  on  the  morrow  it  seemed  for  the 

interest  of  neither  to  resume  the  struggle.37 

The  field  where  this  campaign  was  to  be  fought  was  a 


Bor,  III.  xxviii.  G04.  “  D^T1™11’  xL  74.81’  Seqq' 

31  Bentivoglio,  Dondini,  Coloma,  Meteren,  Bor,  De  Thou,  tm  sup. 


1592. 


DANGEROUS  POSITION  OP  FARNESE. 


149 


narrow  peninsula  enclosed  between  the  sea  and  the  rivers 
Seine  and  Dieppe.38  In  this  peninsula,  called  the  Land  of 
Caux,  it  was  Henry's  intention  to  shut  up  his  enemy.  Farnese 
had  finished  the  work  that  he  had  been  sent  to  do,  and  was 
anxious,  as  Henry  was  aware,  to  return  to  the  Nether¬ 
lands.  Kouen  was  relieved,  Caudebec  had  fallen.  There 
was  not  food  or  forage  enough  in  the  little  peninsula  to 
feed  both  the  city  and  the  whole  army  of  the  League. 
Shut  up  in  this  narrow  area,  Alexander  must  starve  or  sur¬ 
render.  His  only  egress  was  into  Picardy  and  so  home  to 
Artois,  through  the  base  of  the  isosceles  triangle  between 
the  two  rivers  and  on  the  borders  of  Picardy.  On  this  base 
Henry  had  posted  his  whole  army.  Should  Farnese  assail 
him,  thus  provided  with  a  strong  position  and  superiority  of 
force,  defeat  was  certain.  Should  he  remain  where  he  was, 
he  must  inevitably  starve.  He  had  no  communications  with 
the  outside.  The  Hollanders  lay  with  their  ships  below 
Caudebec,  blockading  the  river's  mouth  and  the  coast.  His 
only  chance  of  extrication  lay  across  the  Seine.  But  Alex¬ 
ander  was  neither  a  bird  nor  a  fish,  and  it  was  necessary,  so 
Henry  thought,  to  be  either  the  one  or  the  other  to  cross  that 
broad,  deep,  and  rapid  river,  where  there  were  no  bridges, 
and  where  the  constant  ebb  and  flow  of  the  tide  made  trans¬ 
portation  almost  impossible  in  face  of  a  powerful  army  in  rear 
and  flank.  Farnese' s  situation  seamed  desperate,  while  the 
shrewd  Bearnese  sat  smiling  serenely,  carefully  watching  at 
the  mouth  of  the  trap  into  which  he  had  at  last  inveigled  his 
mighty  adversary.  Secure  of  his  triumph,  he  seemed  to  have 
changed  his  nature,  and  to  have  become  as  sedate  and  wary 
as,  by  habit,  he  was  impetuous  and  hot. 

And  in  truth  F arnese  found  himself  in  very  narrow  quarters. 
There  was  no  hay  for  his  horses,  no  bread  for  his  men.  A 
penny  loaf  was  sold  for  two  shillings.  A  jug  of  water  was  worth 
a  crown.  As  for  meat  or  wine,  they  were  hardly  to  be  dreamed 
of.39  His  men  were  becoming  furious  at  their  position.  They 

88  The  stream,  the  mouth  of  which  is  at  Dieppe,  was  then  called  by  the 
same  name  as  the  town.  38  Bor,  III.  xxviii.  G19. 


150 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXV. 


had  enlisted  to  light,  not  to  starve,  and  they  murmured  that 
it  was  better  for  an  army  to  fall  with  weapons  in  its  hands 
than  to  drop  to  pieces  hourly  with  the  enemy  looking  on  and 
enjoying  their  agony. 

It  was  obvious  to  Farnese  that  there  were  but  two  ways  out 
of  his  dilemma.  He  might  throw  himself  upon  Henry — 
strongly  entrenched  as  he  was,  and  with  much  superior  forces 
to  his  own,  upon  ground  deliberately  chosen  for  himself — 
defeat  him  utterly,  and  march  over  him  back  to  the  Nether¬ 
lands.  This  would  be  an  agreeable  result  ;  but  the  under¬ 
taking  seemed  difficult,  to  say  the  least.  Or  he  might  throw 
his  army  across  the  Seine  and  make  his  escape  through  the 
isle  of  France  and  Southern  Picardy  back  to  the  so-called 
obedient  provinces.  But  it  seemed  hopeless  without  bridges 
or  pontoons  to  attempt  the  passage  of  the  Seine. 

There  was,  however,  no  time  left  for  hesitation.  Secretly 
he  took  his  resolution  and  communicated  it  in  strict  confidence 
to  Mayenne,  to  Ranuccio,  and  to  one  or  two  other  chiefs.  He 
came  to  Caudebec,  and  there,  close  to  the  margin  of  the  river, 
he  threw  up  a  redoubt.  On  the  opposite  bank,  he  constructed 
another.  On  both  he  planted  artillery,  placing  a  force  of 
eight  hundred  Netherlanders  under  Count  Bossu  in  the  one, 
and  an  equal  number  of  the  same  nation,  Walloons  chiefly, 
under  Barlotte  in  the  other.  He  collected  all  the  vessels, 
flatboats,  wherries,  and  rafts  that  could  be  found  or  put 
together  at  Rouen,  and  then  under  cover  of  his  forts  he 
transported  all  the  Flemish  infantry,  and  the  Spanish,  French, 
and  Italian  cavalry,  during  the  night  of  22nd  May  to  the 
22  May,  opposite  bank  of  the  Seine.  Next  morning  he  sent 
1592.  up  all  the  artillery  together  with  the  Flemish 
cavalry  to  Rouen,  where,  making  what  use  he  could  by  tem¬ 
porary  contrivances  of  the  broken  arches  of  the  broken  bridge, 
in  order  to  shorten  the  distance  from  shore  to  shore,  he 
managed  to  convey  his  whole  army  with  all  its  trains  across 
the  river.40 

♦ 

40  Bentivoglio,  Dondini,  Coloma,  De  Tliou,  Bor,  Meteren,  ubi  sup.  Letter 
of  Parma  last  cited. 


1592.  ESCAPE  OF  FARNESE  AND  HIS  ARMY.  151 

A  force  was  left  behind,  up  to  the  last  moment,  to  engage 
in  the  customary  skirmishes,  and  to  display  themselves  as 
largely  as  possible  for  the  purpose  of  imposing  upon  the  enemy. 
The  young  Prince  of  Parma  had  command  of  this  rearguard. 
The  device  was  perfectly  successful.  The  news  of  the  move¬ 
ment  was  not  brought  to  the  ears  of  Henry  until  after  it  had 
been  accomplished.  When  the  king  reached  the  shore  of  the 
Seine,  he  saw  to  his  infinite  chagrin  and  indignation  that 
the  last  stragglers  of  the  army,  including  the  garrison  of  the 
fort  on  the  right  bank,  were  just  ferrying  themselves  across 
under  command  of  Ranuccio.41 

Furious  with  disappointment,  he  brought  some  pieces  of 
artillery  to  bear  upon  the  triumphant  fugitives.  Not  a  shot 
told,  and  the  Leaguers  had  the  satisfaction  of  making  a  bon¬ 
fire  in  the  king’s  face  of  the  boats  which  had  brought  them 
over.  Then,  taking  up  their  line  of  march  rapidly  inland, 
they  placed  themselves  completely  out  of  the  reach  of  the 
Huguenot  guns. 

Henry  had  a  bridge  at  Pont  de  1’ Arche,  and  his  first 
impulse  was  to  pursue  with  his  cavalry,  but  it  was  obvious  that 
his  infantry  could  never  march  by  so  circuitous  a  route  fast 
enough  to  come  up  with  the  enemy,  who  had  already  so  pro¬ 
digious  a  stride  in  advance.42 

There  was  no  need  to  disguise  it  to  himself.  Henry  saw 
himself  for  the  second  time  out-generalled  by  the  consummate 
Farnese.  The  trap  was  broken,  the  game  had  given  him  the 
slip.  The  manner  in  which  the  duke  had  thus  extricated 
himself  from  a  profound  dilemma,  in  which  libs  fortunes  seemed 
hopelessly  sunk,  has  usually  been  considered  one  of  the  most 
extraordinary  exploits  of  his  life.43 

Precisely  at  this  time,  too,  ill  news  reached  Henry  from 
Brittany  and  the  neighbouring  country.  The  Princes  Conti 
and  Hombes  had  been  obliged,  on  the  13th  May,  1592,  to 
raise  the  siege  of  Craon,  in  consequence  of  the  advance  of 
the  Duke  of  Mercoeur,  with  a  force  of  seven  thousand  men.44 

;  41  Bentivoglio,  Dondini,  Coloma,  De  Thou,  Bor,  Meteren,  ubi  sup.  42  Ibid. 

43  Ibid.  44  Umton  to  Burghley,  24  May,  1592,  0.  S.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.) 


1 52  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXV. 

They  numbered,  including  lanzlmechts  and  the  English  con¬ 
tingent,  about  half  as  many,  and  before  they  could  effect 
their  retreat,  were  attacked  by  Mercoeur,  and  utterly  routed. 
The  English,  who  alone  stood  to  their  colours,  were  nearly  all 
cut  to  pieces.  The  rest  made  a  disorderly  retreat,45  but  were 
ultimately,  with  few  exceptions,  captured  or  slain.  The  duke, 
following  up  his  victory,  seized  Chateau  Gontier  and  La  Yal, 
important  crossing  places  on  the  river  Mayenne,  and  laid  siege 
to  Mayenne,  capital  city  of  that  region.  The  panic,  spread¬ 
ing  through  Brittany  and  Maine,  threatened  the  king's  cause 
there  with  complete  overthrow,  hampered  his  operations  in 
Normandy,  and  vastly  encouraged  the  Leaguers.  It  became 
necessary  for  Henry  to  renounce  his  designs  upon  Bouen,  and 
the  pursuit  of  Parma,  and  to  retire  to  Yernon,  there  to  occupy 
himself  with  plans  for  the  relief  of  Brittany.  In  vain  had  the 
Earl  of  Essex,  whose  brother  had  already  been  killed  in 
the  campaign,  manifested  such  headlong  gallantry  in  that 
country  as  to  call  forth  the  sharpest  rebukes  from  the  admiring 
but  anxious  Elizabeth.  The  handful  of  brave  Englishmen 
who  had  been  withdrawn  Bom  the  Netherlands,  much  to  the 
dissatisfaction  of  the  States- General,  in  order  to  defend  the 
coasts  of  Brittany,  would  have  been  better  employed  under 
Maurice  of  Nassau.  So  soon  as  the  heavy  news  reached  the 
king,  the  faithful  Umton  was  sent  for.  u  He  imparted 
the  same  unto  me,"  said  the  envoy,  “with  extraordinary 
passion  and  discontent.  He  discoursed  at  large  of  his  miserable 
estate,  of  the  factions  of  his  servants,  and  of  their  ill-disposi¬ 
tions,  and  then  required  my  opinion  touching  his  course  for 
Brittany,  as  also  what  further  aid  he  might  expect  from  her 
Majesty  ;  alleging  that  unless  he  were  presently  strengthened 
by  England  it  was  impossible  for  him  longer  to  resist  the 
greatness  of  the  King  of  Spain,  who  assailed  his  country  by 
Brittany,  Languedoc,  the  Low  Countries  by  the  Puke  of 
Saxony  and  the  Duke  of  Lorraine,  and  so  ended  his  speech 
passionately." 46  Thus  adjured,  Sir  Henry  spoke  to  the  king 
firmly  but  courteously,  reminding  him  how,  contrary  to 
45  Umton  to  Burgliley,  24  May,  1592,  O.  S.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.)  «  ibid. 


1592.  COUNSEL  OF  THE  ENGLISH  AMBASSADOR.  153 

English  advice,  he  had  followed  other  counsellors  to  the 
neglect  of  Brittany,  and  had  broken  his  promises  to  the  queen. 
He  concluded  by  urging  him  to  advance  into  that  country  in 
person,  but  did  not  pledge  himself  on  behalf  of  her  Majesty 
to  any  further  assistance.  “To  this,”  said  Umton,  “the king 
gave  a  willing  ear,  and  replied,  with  many  thanks,  and  with¬ 
out  disallowing  of  anything  that  I  alleged,  yielding  many 
excuses  of  his  want  of  means,  not  of  disposition,  to  provide  a 
remedy,  not  forgetting  to  acknowledge  her  Majesty's  care 
of  him  and  his  country,  and  especially  of  Brittany,  excusing 
much  the  bad  disposition  of  his  counsellors,  and  inclining 
much  to  my  motion  to  go  in  person  thither,  especially  because 
he  might  thereby  give  her  Majesty  better  satisfaction  ;  .  .  .  . 
and  protesting  that  he  would  either  immediately  himself 
make  war  there  in  those  parts  or  send  an  army  thither.  I 
do  not  doubt,”  added  the  ambassador,  “  but  with  good  handling 
her  Majesty  may  now  obtain  any  reasonable  matter  for  the 
conservation  of  Brittany,  as  also  for  a  place  of  retreat  for 
the  English,  and  I  urge  continually  the  yielding  of  Brest  into 
her  Majesty’s  hands,  whereunto  I  find  the  king  well  inclined, 
if  he  might  bring  it  to  pass.”47 

Alexander  passed  a  few  days  in  Paris,  where  he  was 
welcomed  with  much  cordiality,  recruiting  his  army  for  a 
brief  period  in  the  land  of  Brie,  and  then — broken  in  health 
but  entirely  successful — he  dragged  himself  once  more  to 
Spa  to  drink  the  waters.  He  left  an  auxiliary  force  with 
Mayenne,  and  promised — infinitely  against  his  own  wishes — 
to  obey  his  master’s  commands  and  return  again  before  the 
winter  to  do  the  League’s  work.48 

And  thus  Alexander  had  again  solved  a  difficult  problem. 
He  had  saved  for  his  master  and  for  the  League  the  second 
city  of  France  and  the  whole  coast  of  Normandy.  Rouen 
had  been  relieved  in  masterly  manner  even  as  Paris 
had  been  succoured  the  year  before.  He  had  done  this, 
although  opposed  by  the  sleepless  energy  and  the  exu¬ 
berant  valour  of  the  quick-witted  Navarre,  and  although 
47  Umton  to  Burgliley,  24  May,  1592,  0.  S.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.)  48  Ibid. 


154  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXV. 

encumbered  by  the  assistance  of  the  ponderous  Duke  of 
Mayenne.  His  military  reputation,  through  these  two  famous, 
reliefs  and  retreats,  grew  greater  than  ever. 

Ho  commander  of  the  age  was  thought  capable  of  doing 
what  he  had  thus  done.  Yet,  after  all,  what  had  he  accom¬ 
plished  ?  Did  he  not  feel  in  his  heart  of  hearts  that 
he  was  but  a  strong  and  most  skilful  swimmer  struggling 
for  a  little  while  against  an  ocean-tide  which  was  steadily 
sweeping  him  and  his  master  and  all  their  fortunes  far  out 
into  the  infinite  depths  ? 

Something  of  this  breathed  ever  in  his  most  secret  utter¬ 
ances.  But,  so  long  as  life  was  in  him,  his  sword  and  his 
genius  were  at  the  disposal  of  his  sovereign,  to  carry  out  a 
series  of  schemes  as  futile  as  they  were  nefarious. 

For  us,  looking  back  upon  the  Past,  which  was  then  the 
Future,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  remorselessly  the  great  current 
of  events  was  washing  away  the  system  and  the  personages 
seeking  to  resist  its  power  and  to  oppose  the  great  moral 
principles  by  which  human  affairs  in  ‘the  long  run  are  inva¬ 
riably  governed.  Spain  and  Borne  were  endeavouring  to 
obliterate  the  landmarks  of  race,  nationality,  historical  institu¬ 
tions,  and  the  tendencies  of  awakened  popular  conscience, 
throughout  Christendom,  and  to  substitute  for  them  a  dead 
level  of  conformity  to  one  regal  and  sacerdotal  despotism. 

England,  Holland,  the  Navarre  party  in  France,  and  a  con¬ 
siderable  part  of  Germany  were  contending  for  national  unity 
and  independence,  for  vested  and  recorded  rights.  Much 
farther  than  they  themselves  or  their  chieftains  dreamed  those 
millions  of  men  were  fighting  for  a  system  of  temperate 
human  freedom  ;  for  that  emancipation  under  just  laws  from 
arbitrary  human  control,  which  is  the  right — however 
frequently  trampled  upon— of  all  classes,  conditions,  and 
races  of  men  *  and  for  which  it  is  the  instinct  of  the  human 
race  to  continue  to  struggle  under  every  disadvantage,  and 
often  against  all  hope,  throughout  the  ages,  so  long  as  the 
very  principle  of  humanity  shall  not  be  extinguished  in  those 
who  have  been  created  after  their  Maker’s  image. 


1592.  PROGRESS  OF  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  FREEDOM.  155 

It  may  safely  be  doubted  whether  the  great  Queen,  the 
Bearnese,  Alexander  Farnese,  or  his  master,  with  many  of 
their  respective  adherents,  differed  very  essentially  from  each 
other  in  their  notions  of  the  right  divine  and  the  right  of  the 
people.  But  history  has  shown  us  which  of  them  best  under¬ 
stood  the  spirit  of  the  age,  and  had  the  keenest  instinct  to 
keep  themselves  in  the  advance  by  moving  fastest  in  the  direc¬ 
tion  whither  it  was  marshalling  all  men.  There  were  many 
earnest,  hard-toiling  men  in  those  days,  men  who  believed  ii) 
the  work  to  which  they  devoted  their  lives.  Perhaps,  too, 
the  devil-worshippers  did  their  master’s  work  as  strenuously 
and  heartily  as  any,  and  got  fame  and  pelf  for  their  pains. 
Fortunately,  a  good  portion  of  what  they  so  laboriously 
wrought  for  has  vanished  into  air;  while'  humanity  has  at 
least  gained  something  from  those  who  deliberately  or  in¬ 
stinctively  conformed  themselves  to  her  eternal  laws. 


156 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVI. 


CHAPTER  X  X  Y  I. 


Return  of  Prince  Maurice  to  tlie  siege  of  Steenwyck  —  Capitulation  of  the 
besieged  —  Effects  of  the  introduction  of  mining  operations — Maurice 
besieges  Coeworden —  Verdugo  attempts  to  relieve  the  city,  but  fails  — 
The  city  capitulates,  and  Prince  Maurice  retreats  into  winter  quarters. 

While  Earnese  had  thus  been  strengthening  the  bulwarks  of 
Philip’s  universal  monarchy  in  that  portion  of  his  proposed 
Erencli  dominions  which  looked  towards  England,  there  had 
been  opportunity  for  Prince  Maurice  to  make  an  assault  upon 
the  Frisian  defences  of  this  vast  realm.  It  was  difficult  to 
make  half  Europe  into  one  great  Spanish  fortification, 
guarding  its  every  bastion  and  every  point  of  the  curtain, 
without  far  more  extensive  armaments  than  the  “  Great  King,” 
as  the  Leaguers  proposed  that  Philip  should  entitle  himself, 
had  ever  had  at  his  disposal.  It  might  he  a  colossal 
scheme  to  stretch  the  rod  of  empire  over  so  large  a  portion  of 
the  earth,-  hut  the  dwarfish  attempts  to  carry  the  design  into 
execution  hardly  reveal  the  hand  of  genius.  It  is  astonish¬ 
ing  to  contemplate  the  meagre  numbers  and  the  slender 
funds  with  which  this  world-empire  was  to  he  asserted  and 
maintained.  The  armies  arrayed  at  any  important  point 
hardly  exceeded  a  modern  division  or  two  ;  while  the 
resources  furnished  for  a  year  would  hardly  pay  in  later  days 
for  a  few  weeks’  campaign. 

When  Alexander,  the  first  commander  of  his  time,  moved 
out  of  Flanders  into  France  with  less  than  twenty  thousand 
men,  he  left  most  vital '  portions  of  his  master’s  hereditary 
dominions  so  utterly  unprotected  that  it  was  possible  to  attack 
them  with  a  handful  of  troops.  The  young  disciple  of  Simon 
Stevinus  now  resumed  that  practical  demonstration  of  his 
principles  which  had  been  in  the  previous  year  so  well  begun. 


15D2. 


RETURN  OF  MAURICE  TO  STEEN WYCK. 


157 


On  the  28th  May/ 1592,  Maurice,  taking  the  field  with  six 
thousand  foot  and  two  thousand  horse,  came  once  28  May, 
more  before  Steenwyck.  It  will  he  remembered  lo93* 
that  he  had  been  obliged  to  relinquish  the  siege  of  this  place 
in  order  to  confront  the  Duke  of  Parma  in  July,  1591,  at 
Nymegen. 

The  city — very  important  from  its  position,  being  the  key 
to  the  province  of  Drenthe  as  well  as  one  of  the  safeguards  of 
Friesland— had  been  besieged  in  vain  by  Count  Renneberg 
after  his  treasonable  surrender  of  Groningen,  of  which  he  was 
governor,  to  the  Spaniards,  but  had  been  subsequently  sui- 
prised  by  Tassis.  Since  that  time  it  had  held  for  the  king. 
Its  fortifications  were  strong,  and  of  the  best  description  known 
at  that  day.  Its  regular  garrison  was  sixteen  companies  of 
foot  and  some  cavalry  under  Antoine  de  Quocqueville, 
military  governor.  Besides  these  troops  were  twelve  hundred 
Walloon  infantry,  commanded  by  Lewis,  youngest  Count  van 
den  Berg,  a  brave  lad  of  eighteen  years,  with  whom  were  the 
lord  of  Waterdyck  and  other  Netherland  nobles.1 

To  the  military  student  the  siege  fnay  possess  importance 
as  marking  a  transitional  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  be¬ 
leaguering  science.  To  the  general  reader,  as  in  most  of  the 
exploits  of  the  young  Poliorcetes,  its  details  have  but  slender 
interest.  Perhaps  it  was  here  that  the  spade  first  vindicated 
its  dignity,  and  entitled  itself  to  be  classed  as  a  military 
weapon  of  value  along  with  pike  and  arquebus.  It  was  here 
that  the  soldiers  of  Maurice,  burrowing  in  the  ground  at  ten 
stuyvers  a  day,  were  jeered  at  by  the  enemy  from  the  battle¬ 
ments  as  boors  and  ditchers,  who  had  forfeited  their  eo  May, 
right  to  be  considered  soldiers — but  jeered  at  for  the  9  June* 
last  time. 

From  30th  May  to  9th  June  the  prince  was  occupied  in 
throwing  up  earthworks  on  the  low  grounds  in  order  to  bring 
his  guns  into  position.  On  the  13th  June  he  began  ^ 
to  batter  with  forty-five  pieces,  but  effected  little 


1  Bor,  III.  xxviii.  628-633.  Meteren,  xvi.  304,  305.  Reyd,  ix.  177-180. 
Coloma,  v.  99,  100. 


15S 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXV. 


more  than  to  demolish  some  of  the  hrea'st-works.  He  threw 
hot  shot  into  the  town  very  diligently,  too,  but  did  small 
damage.  The  cannonading  went  on  for  nearly  a  week,  but 
the  practice  was  so  very  indifferent — notwithstanding  the 
protection  of  the  blessed  Barbara  and  the  tuition  of  the  bus- 
masters — that  the  besieged  began  to  amuse  themselves  with 
these  empty  and  monotonous  salvos  of  the  honourable  Artil¬ 
lery  Guild.  When  all  this  blazing  and  thundering  had 
led  to  no  better  result  than  to  convert  a  hundred  thousand 
good  Flemish  florins  into  noise  and  smoke,  the  thrifty 
Netherlanders  on  both  sides  of  the  walls  began  to  disparage 
the  young  general's  reputation.  After  all,  they  said,  the 
Spaniards  were  right  when  they  called  artillery  mere  espanta- 
vellacos  or  scare-cowards.  This  burrowing  and  bellowing 
must  at  last  give  place  to  the  old-fashioned  push  of  pike,  and 
then  it  would  be  seen  who  the  soldiers  were.  Observations 
like  these  were  freely  made  under  a  flag  of  truce  ;  for  on  the 

19th  June — notwithstanding  their  contempt  for  the 
19  June.  77  , 

espanta-vettacos — the  besieged  had  sent  out  a  de.- 

putation  to  treat  for4  an  honourable  surrender.  Maurice 
entertained  the  negotiators  hospitably  in  his  own  tent,  but 
the  terms  suggested  to  him  were  inadmissible.  Nothing  came 
of  the  conference  therefore  but  mutual  criticisms,  friendly 
enough,  although  sufficiently  caustic. 

Maurice  now  ceased  cannonading,  and  burrowed  again  for 
ten  days  without  interruption.  Four  mines,  leading  to  dif¬ 
ferent  points  of  the  defences,  were  patiently  constructed,  and 
two  large  chambers  at  the  terminations,  neatly  finished  off 
and  filled  respectively  with  five  thousand  and  twenty-five 
hundred  pounds  of  powder,  were  at  last  established  under  two 
of  the  principal  bastions.2 3 

During  all  this  digging  there  had  been  a  couple  of  sorties 
in  which  the  besieged  had  inflicted  great  damage  on  their 
enemy,  and  got  back  into  the  town  with  a  few  prisoners, 
having  lost  but  six  of  their  own  men.4  Sir  Francis  Vere  had 


2  Reyd,  uhi  sup. 

3  Bor,  Meteren,  Reyd,  Coloma,  ubi 
sup. 


4  Ibid.  Coloma  says  that  three 
hundred  of  the  besiegers  were  killed 
in  this  sally. 


1592. 


ASSAULT  AND  CAPITULATION. 


159 


been  severely  wounded  in  the  leg,  so  that  he  was  obliged  to  keep 
his  bed  during  the  rest  of  the  siege.  Verdugo,  too,  had  made  a 
feeble  attempt  to  reinforce  the  place  with  three  hundred  men, 
sixty  or  seventy  of  whom  had  entered,  while  the  rest  had 
been  killed  or  captured.5  On  such  a  small  scale  was  Philip's 
world-empire  contended  for  by  his  stadholder  in  Friesland ; 
yet  it  was  certainly  not  the  fault  of  the  stout  old  Portu¬ 
guese.  Verdugo  would  rather  have  sent  thirty  thousand 
men  to  save  the  front  door  of  his  great  province  than  three 
hundred.  But  every  available  man — and  few  enough  of 
them  they  were — had  been  sent  out  of  the  Netherlands, 
to  defend  the  world-empire  in  its  outposts  of  Normandy  and 
Brittany. 

This  was  Philip  the  Prudent's  system  for  conquering  the 
world,  and  men  looked  upon  him  as  the  consummation  of 
kingcraft. 

On  the  3rd  J uly  Maurice  ordered  his  whole  force  to  be  in 
readiness  for  the  assault.  The  mines  were  then  sprung. 

The  bastion  of  the  east  gate  was  blown  to  ruins.  The 
mine  under  the  Gast-Huys  bulwark,  burst  outwardly,  and 
buried  alive  many  Hollanders  standing  ready  for  the  assault.6 
At  this  untoward  accident  Maurice  hesitated  to  give  the  signal 
for  storming  the  breach,  but  the  panic  within  the  town  was  so 
evident  that  Lewis  William  lost  no  time  in  seizing  the  over¬ 
thrown  eastern  bulwark,  from  the  ruins  of  which  he  looked 
over  the  whole  city.7  The  other  broken  bastion  was  likewise 
easily  mastered,  and  the  besieged,  seeing  the  storm  about  to 
burst  upon  them  with  irresistible  fury,  sent  a  trumpet.  Mean¬ 
time  Maurice,  inspecting  the  effects  of  the  explosion  and  pre¬ 
paring  for  the  assault,  had  been  shot  through  the  left  cheek. 
The  wound  was  not  dangerous,  and  the  prince  extracted  the 
bullet  with  his  own  hand,8  but  the  change  of  half  an  inch 
would  have  made  it  fatal.  He  was  not  incapacitated — after 
his  wound  had  been  dressed,  amidst  the  remonstrances 


3  July. 


5  Bor,  Meteren,  Reyd,  Coloma,  ubi 
sup. 

Ibid.  ’  7  Ibid. 


8  Ibid.  Letter  of  John  the  Younger 
to  liis  fattier,  in  Groen  v.  Prinsterer; 
(Archives  II.  s.  i.  198.) 


160 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVI. 


of  his  friends  for  his  temerity — from  listening  to  the  proposi¬ 
tions  of  the  city.  They  were  refused,  for  the  prince  was  sure 
of  having:  his  town  on  his  own  terms. 

o 

Next  day  he  permitted  the  .  garrison  to  depart ;  the 
officers  and  soldiers  promising  not  to  serve  the 

4  July.  0£  gpain  on  the  Netherland  side  of  the  Rhine 

for  six  months.  They  were  to  take  their  baggage,  hut  to  leave 
arms,  flags,  munitions,  and  provisions.  Both  Maurice  and 
Lewis  William  were  for  insisting  on  sterner  conditions,  but 
the  States'  deputies  and  members  of  the  council  who  were 
present,  as  usual,  in  camp  urged  the  building  of  the  golden 
bridge.  After  all,  a  fortified  city,  the  second  in  importance 
after  Groningen  of  all  those  regions,  was  the  real  prize  con¬ 
tended  for.  The  garrison  was  meagre  and  much  reduced 
during  the  siege.  The  fortifications,  of  masonry  and  earth¬ 
work  combined,  were  nearly  as  strong  as  ever.  Saint  Bar¬ 
bara  had  done  them  but  little  damage,  but  the  town  itself 
was  in  a  sorry  plight.  Churches  and  houses  were  nearly  all 
shot  to  pieces,  and  the  inhabitants  had  long  been  dwelling  in 
the  cellars.  Two  hundred  of  the  garrison  remained,  severely 
wounded,  in  the  town  ;  three  hundred  and  fifty  had  been 
killed,  among  others  the  young  cousin  of  the  Nassaus,  Count 
Lewis  van  den  Berg.  The  remainder  of  the  royalists 
marched  out,  and  were  treated  with  courtesy  by  Maurice, 
who  gave  them  an  escort,  permitting  the  soldiers  to  retain 
their  side-arms,  and  furnishing  horses  to  the  governor. 

In  the  besieging  army  five  or'  six  hundred  had  been  killed 
and  many  wounded,  but  not  in  numbers  bearing  the  same 
proportion  to  the  slain  as  in  modern  battles.9 

The  siege  had  lasted  forty-four  days.  When  it  was  over, 
and  men  came  out  from  the  town  to  examine  at  leisure  the 


9  At  least  tliis  is  the  testimony  of 
all  the  Dutch  historians,  but — as  has 
been  the  case  in  all  sieges  and  battles 
since  men  began  to  besiege  and  to  fight 
battles — the  evidence  given  by  the  two 
sides  is  in  almost  direct  conflict. 

According  to  Coloma,  thirteen  hun¬ 
dred  of  the  besiegers  had  been  killed 
outright  during  the  assaults,  and  there 


were  so  many  wounded  that  not  5000 
were  left  unhurt  in  their  camp,  out  of 
10,000  with  which  the  siege  began. 
On  the  other  hand,  according  to  the 
same  authority,  the  besieged  had  lost 
but  150  killed,  and  a  few  more  than 
that  number  wounded  :  f.  99v0.  But 
we  have  seen  that  the  whole  of  the 
besieging  army  amounted  only  to  8000. 


1592. 


SIEGE  OF  COEWORDEN. 


•  161 


•  • 

prince's  camp  and  his  field  of  operations,  they  were  astounded 
at  the  amount  of  labor  performed  in  so  short  a  time.  The 
oldest  campaigners  confessed  that  they  never  before  had 
understood  what  a  siege  really  was,  and  they  began  to  con¬ 
ceive  a  higher  respect  for  the  art  of  the  engineer  than  they 
had  ever  done  before.  u  Even  those  who  were  wont  to  rail 
at  science  and  labour,"  said  one  who  was  present  in  the  camp 
of  Maurice,  u  declared  that  the  siege  would  have  been  a  far 
more  arduous  undertaking  had  it  not  been  for  those  two 
engineers,  Joost  Matthes  of  Alost,  and  Jacob  Kemp  of 
Gorcum.  It  is  high  time  to  take  from  soldiers  the  false 
notion  that  it  is  shameful  to  work  with  the  spade ;  an  error 
which  was  long  prevalent  among  the  Netherlanders,  and  still 
prevails  among  the  French,  to  the  great  detriment  of  the 
king's  affairs,  as  may  be  seen  in  his  sieges."  10 

Certainly  the  result  of  Henry's  recent  campaign  before 
Rouen  had  proved  sufficiently  how  much  better  it  would  have 
been  for  him  had  there  been  some  Dutch  Joosts  and  Jacobs 
with  their  picks  and  shovels  in  his  army*  at  that  critical 
period.  They  might  perhaps  have  baffled  Parma  as  they 
had  done  Yerdugo. 

Without  letting  the  grass  grow  under  his  feet,  Maurice 
now  led  his  army  from  Steenwyck  to  Zwol  and  26  July, 
arrived  on  the  26th  J uly  before  Coeworden.  1592. 

This  place,  very  strong  by  art  and  still  stronger  by  nature, 
was  the  other  key  to  all  north  Netherland — Friesland, 
Groningen,  and  Drenthe.  Should  it  fall  into  the  hands  of 
the  republic  it  would  be  impossible  for  the  Spaniards  to 
retain  much  longer’ the  rich' and  important  capital  of  all  that 
country,  the  city  of  Groningen.  Coeworden  lay  between  two 
vast  morasses,  one  of  which — the  Bourtange  swamp— ex¬ 
tended  some  thirty  miles  to  the  bay  of  the  Dollart ;  while  the 
other  spread  nearly  as  far  in  a  westerly  direction  to  the 
Zuyder  Zee.  Thus  these  two  great  marshes  were  a  frame — 
an  almost  impassable  barrier— by  which  the  northern  third 
of  the  whole  territory  of  the  republic  was  encircled  and  de- 

10  Reyd,  ubi  sup.  •  . 


VOL.  III. — M 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVI. 


162 


fended.  Throughout  this  great  morass  there  was  not  a  liand- 
hreadth  of  solid  ground— not  a  resting-place  for  a  human 
foot,  save  the  road  which  led  through  Coeworden.  This 
passage  lay  upon  a  natural  deposit  of  hard,  dry  sand,  inter¬ 
posed  as  if  by  a  caprice  of  nature  between  the  two  swamps, 
and  was  about  half  a  mile  in  width.11 

The  town  itself  was  well  fortified,  and  Verdugo  had  been 
recently  strengthening  the  position  with  additional  earth¬ 
works.12  A  thousand  veterans  formed  the  garrison  under 
command  of  another  Van  den  Berg,  the  Count  Frederic.13  It 
was  the  fate  of  these  sister’s-children  of  the  great  founder  of 
the  republic  to  serve  the  cause  of  foreign  despotism  with 
remarkable  tenacity  against  their  own  countrymen,  and 
against  their  nearest  blood  relations.  On  many  conspicuous 
occasions  they  were  almost  as  useful  to  Spain  and  the 
Inquisition  as  the  son  and  nearly  all  the  other  kinsmen  of 
William  the  Silent  had  rendered  themselves  to  the  cause  of 
Holland  and  of  freedom. 

Having  thoroughly  entrenched  his  camp  before  Coeworden 
and  begun  the  regular  approaches,  Maurice  left  his  cousin 
Lewis  William  to  superintend  the  siege  operations  for  the 
moment,  and  advanced  towards  Ootmarsum,  a  fiontiei  tovn 
which  might  give  him  trouble  if  in  the  hands  of  a  relieving 
force.  The  place  fell  at  once,  with  the  loss  of  but  one  life  to 
the  States  army,  but  that  a  very  valuable  one  ;  General  de 
Famars,  one  of  the  original  signers  of  the  famous  Compromise, 
and  a  most  distinguished  soldier  of  the  republic,  having  been 
killed  before  the  gates. 

On  the  31st  July,  Maurice  returned  to  his  entrenchments. 
July  81,  The  enemy  professed  unbounded  confidence  ;  Van 
1592.  den  Berg  not  doubting  that  he  should  be  relieved 
by  Yerdugo,  and  Verdugo  being  sure  that  Van  den  Berg 
would  need  no  relief.  The  Portuguese  veteran  indeed 
was  inclined  to  wonder  at  Maurice's  presumption  in  attack¬ 
ing  so  impregnable  a  fortress.  u  If  Coeworden  does  not 


11  Guicciardini  in  voce.  Reyd,  is.  186,  seqq.  '  tm 

13  Reyd,  ubi  sup.  Meteren,  xvi.  306.  Bor,  III.  xsviii.  639,  seqq. 


1592.  FORMAL  SUMMONS  TO  SURRENDER.  153 

hold/'  said  lie,  “there  is  no  place  in  the  world  that  can 
hold.” 14 

Count  Peter  Ernest  was  still  acting  as  governor-general  • 
for  Alexander  Farnese,  on  returning  from  his  second  French 
campaign,  had  again  betaken  himself,  shattered  and  melan¬ 
choly,  to  the  waters  of  Spa,  leaving  the  responsibility  for 
Netherland  affairs  upon  the  German  octogenarian.15  To  him, 
and  to  the  nonagenarian  Mondragon  at  Antwerp,  the  veteran 
Yerdugo  now  called  loudly  for  aid  against  the  youthful 
pedant,  whom  all  men  had  been  laughing  at  a  twelvemonth 
or  so  before.  The  Macedonian  phalanx,  Simon  Stevinus  and 
delving  Dutch  boors — unworthy  of  the  name  of  soldiers — 
seemed  to  be  steadily  digging  the  ground  from  under  Philip’s 
feet  in  his  hereditary  domains. 

What  would  become  of  the  world-empire,  where  was  the 
great  king — not  of  Spain  alone,  nor  of  France  alone — but  the 
great  monarch  of  all  Christendom,  to  plant  his  throne  securely, 
if  his  Frisian  strongholds,  his  most  important  northern  out¬ 
posts,  were  to  fall  before  an  almost  beardless  youth  at  the 
head  of  a  handful  of  republican  militia  ? 

Yerdugo  did  his  best,  but  the  best  was  little.  The  Spanish 
and  Italian  legions  had  been  sent  out  of  the  Netherlands 
into  France.  Many  had  died  there,  many  were  in  hospital 
after  their  return,  nearly  all  the  rest  were  mutinous  for  want 
of  pay. 

On  the  16th  August,  Maurice  formally  summoned  Coewor- 
den  to  surrender.  After  the  trumpeter  had  blown  ^  Aun. 
thrice,  Count  Yan  den  Berg,  forbidding  all  others,  1592- 
came  alone  upon  the  walls  and  demanded  his  message.  “  To 
claim  this  city  in  the  name  of  Prince  Maurice  of  Nassau  and 
of  the  States-General,”  was  the  reply. 

“  Tell  him  first  to  beat  down  my  walls  as  flat  as  the  ditch,” 
said  Y an  den  Berg,  “  and  then  to  bring  five  or  six  storms. 
Six  months  after  that  I  will  think  whether  I  will  send  a 
trumpet.” 16 

14  Reyd,  vhi  sup. 

15  Parma  to  P.  E.  Mansfeld,  16  Aug.  1592.  Same  to  Philip,  24  Aug.  1592. 

(Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.)  16  Bor,  Reyd,  Meteren,  ubi  sup. 


164 


Chap.  XXVI. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 

The  prince  proceeded  steadily  with  his  approaches,  but  he 
was  infinitely  chagrined  by  the  departure  out  of  his  camp  of 
Sir  Francis  Yere  with  his  English  contingent  of  three  regi¬ 
ments,  whom  Queen  Elizabeth  had  peremptorily  ordered  to 

the  relief  of  King  Henry  in  Brittany. 

Nothing  amazes  the  modern  mind  so  much  as  the  exquisite 
paucity  of  forces  and  of  funds  by  which  the  world-empire  was 
fought  for  and  resisted  in  France,  Holland,  Spain,  and  Eng¬ 
land.  The  scenes  of  war  were  rapidly  shifted— almost  like  # 
the  slides  of  a  magic-lantern — from  one  country  to  another  ; 
the  same  conspicuous  personages,  almost  the  same  individual 
armies,  perpetually  re-appearing  in  different  places,  as  if 
a  wild  phantasmagoria  were  capriciously  repeating  itself  to 
bewilder  the  imagination.  Essex,  and  Y ere,  and  Boger 
Williams,  and  Black  Norris— Yan  der  Does,  and  Admiral 
Nassau,  the  Meetkerks  and  Count  Philip  Farnese  and 
Mansfeld,  George  Basti,  Arenberg,  Berlaymont,  La  None 
and  Teligny,  Aquila  and  Coloma— were  seen  alternately 
fighting,  retreating,  triumphant,  beleaguering,  campaigning 
all  along  the  great  territory  which  extends  from  the  Bay  of 
Biscay  to  the  crags  of  Brittany,  and  across  the  nanow  seas  to 
the  bogs  of  Ireland,  and  thence  through  the  plains  of  Picaidy 
and  Flanders  to  the  swamps  of  Groningen  and  the  frontiers 

of  the  Bhine. 

This  was  the  arena  in  which  the  great  struggle  was  ever 
going  on,  but  the  champions  were  so  few  in  number  that  their 
individual  shapes  became  familiar  to  us  like  the  figures  of  an 
oft-repeated  pageant.  And  now  the  withdrawal  of  ceitain 
companies  of  infantry  and  squadrons  of  cavalry  from  the 
Spanish  armies  into  France,  had  left  obedient  Netherland 
too  weak  to  resist  rebellious  Netherland,  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  withdrawal  of  some  twenty  or  thirty  companies  of 
English  auxiliaries— most  hard-fighting  veterans  it  is  true, 
but  very  few  in  number — was  likely  to  imperil  the  enteipiise 
of  Maurice  in  Friesland. 

The  removal  of  these  companies  from  the  Low  Countiies 
to  strengthen  the  Bearnese  in  the  north  of  France,  formed 


1592.  EFFECT  OF  THE  WITHDRAWAL  OF  FORCES.  165 

the  subject  of  much  hitter  diplomatic  conference  between  the 
States  and  England  ;  the  order  having  been  communicated 
by  the  great  queen  herself  in  many  a  vehement  epistle  and 
caustic  speech,  enforced  by  big,  manly  oaths.17 


17  The  cautionary  towns  required  to 
be  lield  at  tliis  season  with  a  firm 
hand.  The  days  were  gone  when  the 
States  looked  up  to  the  representative 
of  the  Queen  as  a  “  Messiah,”  and  felt 
that  she  alone  sustained  them  from 
sinking  into  ruin.  A  series  of  victo¬ 
ries  over  the  Spaniards,  and  the 
amazing  fatuity  of  the  Spanish  policy, 
had  given  them  vast  confidence  in 
themselves,  and  a  growing  contempt 
for  their  great  enemy.  They  did  not 
feel  themselves  entirely  dependent  on 
England,  but  considered  the  services 
rendered  by  each  country  to  the  other 
as  fairly  equal,  and  they  therefore  the 
more  keenly  resented  the  withdrawal 
of  troops  to  which  they  believed 
themselves  thoroughly  entitled  by 
their  contract.  It  was  an  infraction 
of  the  treaty,  in  their  opinion,  to  hold 
their  cities,  yet  to  send  the  English 
auxiliaries  into  France.  There  were 
rising  commotions  in  Flushing  and 
Ostend,  while  at  the  same  time  it  was 
felt  that  the  foreign  enemy  at  any' 
moment  was  capable  of  making  a 
sudden  assault  on  those  most  vital 
places.  “  It  is  advertised  me  out  of 
England,”  said  Sir  Robert  Sidney, 
Governor  of  Flushing,  “  that  there  be 
some  men  of  war  that  say  that  Flush¬ 
ing  may  be  kept  with  a  white  rod. 
I  know  not  whether  they  have  the 
Caduceus  which  the  poets  write  that 
Mercury  had,  which  was  of  force  to 
bring  sleep  upon  all  men.  If  they 
have  not,  truly  they  little  know  this 
town,  or  perhaps  will  not  say  what 
indeed  they  think,  being  not  in  their 
own  particular  interested  in  the  good 

or  ill  of  it . The  burghers,  I 

confess, carry  themselves  very  honestly 
and  I  persuade  myself  that  the  queen 
hath  many  true  servants  among  them, 
notwithstanding  the  chief  way  to  keep 
them  still  honest  is  to  have  such  a 
garrison  as  may  pay  them  at  any  time 
the  price  of  doing  ill.”  The  governor 
protested  that  twenty-two  companies 
of  135  men  each  was  not  a  stronger 
garrison  for  his  town  than  five  com¬ 


panies  had  been  a  few  years  before. 
The  republican  sentiment  had  so 
much  displaced  the  feeling  of  depend¬ 
ence  on  a  foreign  sovereign  that  the 
protectors  were  grown  to  appear  almost 
like  enemies.  Formerly  matters  were 
very  different.  “Then  was  the  name 
of  the  queen  reverenced  in  all  these 
countries,”  he  said,  “  as  of  another 
saviour  ;  and  there  was  love  unto  her, 
and  unto  her  subjects,  such  as  if  they 
had  been  all  of  one  nation.  The  Earl 
of  Leicester,  in  name  and  effect,  was 
Govcnour-General  of  the  whole  coun¬ 
try.  My  brother  (Sir  Philip  Sidney) 
had,  joined  to  the  government  which 
now  I  have,  the  regiment  of  Zeeland, 
which  are  the  troops  from  which  this 
garrison  has  to  fear  most  any  sudden 
harm.  The  provinces  then  were  poor, 
and  ill  order  among  them,  and  the 
States  generally  hated  of  the  people. 
Every  day  a  town  lost,  the  King  of 
Spain’s  army  mighty,  himself  entan¬ 
gled  with  no  other  wars,  and  to  all 
these  harms  there  vras  no  show  of 
hope  but  from  the  queen,  all  other 
princes  directly  shunning  their  alli¬ 
ance.  The  people  saw  that  the 
queen’s  taking  the  cause  in  hand,  and 
the  succour  she  sent,  had  been  the 
only  pillar  which,  after  the  loss  of 
Antwerp,  had  held  up  their  State  from 
utter  ruin,  which  bred  a  love  for  the 
queen,  and  a  fear  of  displeasing  her. 

. All  this  has  since  been 

changed :  there  is  a  new  face  on  the 
State  and  people ;  the  governour- 
general  has  lost  all  authority  ;  all  the 
commandment  of  the  armies  is  in 
their  hands.”  The  governour  then 
assigned  many  pregnant  reasons  for 
the  withdrawing  of  love  from  the 
English  and  their  queen  on  part  of 
the  Netherlander,  prominent  among 
which  were  the  malpractices  of  the 
English  in  Campveer,  Medenblick,  and 
Gertruydenberg,  but  especially  the 
interference  by  the  English  cruisers 
with  their  sea-going  ships,  and  the 
frequent  piracies  committed  on  their 
merchantmen  by  her  Majesty’s  navy. 


166 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVI. 


Verdugo,  altliongh  confident  in  the  strength  of  the  place, 
had  represented  to  Parma  and  to  Mansfeld  the  immense  im¬ 
portance  of  relieving  Coeworden.  The  city,  he  said,  was  more 
valuable  than  all  the  towns  taken  the  year  before.  All 
Friesland  hung  upon  it,  and  it  would  he  impossible  to  save 
Groningen  should  Coeworden  fall. 

Meantime  Count  Philip  Nassau  arrived  from  the  campaign 
in  France  with  his  three  regiments  which  he  threw  into 
garrison,  and  thus  set  free  an  equal  number  of  fresh  troops, 
which  were  forthwith  sent  to  the  camp  of  Maurice.13  The 
prince  at  the  same  time  was  made  aware  that  Verdugo  was 


“  The  hindrance  of  their  free  traffic,” 
he  said,  “  and  the  despoiling  of  many 
of  their  ships  by  such  as  have  com¬ 
mission  by  the  queen  to  go  to  sea,  are 
what  they  exclaim  against  extremely  ” 
He  paid  an  honest  tribute  to  the  na¬ 
tional  unity  which  had  grown  up  in 
the  republic,  and  to  the  good  adminis¬ 
tration  of  their  affairs.  ‘‘Now  are 
the  States  and  the  people  firmly 
united,”  he  said ;  “  the  soldiers  tho¬ 
roughly  contented  by  the  good  go¬ 
vernment  of  the  count  and  the 

good  payment  made  to  them . 

The  fear  of  the  king  of  Spain  is 
almost  worn  out,  their  army  hav¬ 
ing  now,  the  third  year,  almost 
without  opposition  kept  the  field.” 
It  was  Sidney’s  opinion  that  Coe¬ 
worden  would  soon  fall,  after  which 
Groningen  would  become  untenable. 
Then,  without  additional  expense,  the 
States  would  be  able  to  take  the  field 
with  25,000  men,  with  which  they 
thought  themselves  quite  capable  of 
holding  the  king  of  Spain  in  play, 
especially  embarked  as  he  was  with 
England  and  France.  “  Yet  do  I  not 
think,”  he  added,  “that  -the  States 
will  be  willing  to  have  the  English 
companies  drawn  away,  they  being, 
although  but  few,  a  great  part  of  the 
reputation  of  the  army  ;  neither  do  I 
think  that  they  would  yet  be  wil¬ 
ling  to  have  the  contract  with  her 
Maj  esty  broken  off,  because  it  is  one  of 
the  principal  chains  that  holds  these 
provinces  in  union  together,  and  one 
of  the  best  graces  they  have  with  the 
princes  abroad ;  and  because,  by  the 
amity  with  Eugland,  they  have  the 


free  use  of  the  sea  by  which  they  live. 
Though  these  men  be  her  Majesty’s 
subjects,  yet  in  respect  that  by  the 
contract  they  were  lent  unto  them, 
and  that  to  have  them  they  put  their 
towns  into  her  Majesty’s  hands,  they 
think  they  may  challenge  a  great  right 
unto  them ;  and  truly  I  was  in  a 
manner  asked  whether  the  queen, 
withdrawing  her  forces,  would  still 
retain  the  cautionary  towns.”  Truly 
the  question  seemed  a  pertinent  one ; 
and  it  would  have  been  difficult  for  an 
honest  man  to  explain  why  the  mort¬ 
gage  should  remain  when  the  loan 
was  withdrawn.  It  needed  no  Solo¬ 
mon  or  Daniel  to  decide  so  plain  a 
matter,  and  the  States  had  an  uncom¬ 
fortable  habit  of  insisting  on  their 
rights,  even  in  the  very  face  of  the 
English  Queen.  “  These  men,  how 
simple  show  soever  they  bear  out¬ 
wardly,  have  hearts  high  enough,” 
said  Sidney ;  “  and  look  to  be  respected 
as  they  which  hold  themselves  chief 
rulers  of  the  provinces,  which  have  so 
long  maintained  war  against  the  king 
of  Spain,  and  truly  I  do  not  think 
that  secretly  anything  is  so  much  in¬ 
digested  by  them  as  the  little  respect 
as  they  imagine  is  had  of  them  in 
England,  and  herein  they  did  look 
that  her  Majesty  should  have  proceed¬ 
ed  by  Avay  of  intreating  with  them, 
as  was  done  two  years  ago,  when  Sir 
John  Norris  led  the  first  troops  into 
Brittany.”  Sidney  to  Burghley,  14 
July,  1592.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.)  Same 
to  same,  4  Aug.  1592.  (Ibid.) 

18  Bor,  Reyd,  Meteren,  ubi  sup. 


1592. 


ATTACK  ON  MAURICE’S  CAMP. 


167 


about  to  receive  important  succour,  and  lie  was  advised  by  the 
deputies  of  the  States- General  present  at  his  headquarters  to 
send  out  his  German  Reiters  to  intercept  them.  Maurice 
refused.  Should  his  cavalry  be  defeated,  he  said,  his  whole 
army  would  be  endangered.  He  determined  to  await  within 
his  fortified  camp  the  attack  of  the  relieving  force. 

During  the  whole  month  of  August  he  proceeded  steadily 
with  his  sapping  and  mining.  By  the  middle  of  the  month 
his  lines  had  come  through  the  ditch,  which  he  drained  of 
water  into  the  counterscarp.  By  the  beginning  of-  Sej)tember 
he  had  got  beneath  the  principal  fort,  which,  in  the  course 
of  three  or  four  days,  he  expected  to  blow  into  the  air.  The 
rainy  weather  had  impeded  his  operations  and  the  march  of 
the  relieving  army.  Nevertheless  that  army  was  at  last  ap¬ 
proaching.  The  regiments  of  Mondragon,  Charles  Mansfeld, 
Gonzaga,  Berlaymont,  and  Arenberg  had  been  despatched  to 

reinforce  Verdugo.  On  the  23rd  August,  having 

.  .  °  *  23  Auo- 

crossed  the  Rhine  at  Rheinberg,  they  reached  Olfen  ~ 

in  the  country  of  Benthem,  ten  miles  from  Coeworden.  Here 
they  threw  up  rockets  and  made  other  signals  that  relief  was 
approaching  the  town.  On  the  3rd  of  September  Verdugo, 
with  the  whole  force  at  his  disposal,  amounting  to  four 
thousand  foot  and  eighteen  hundred  horse,  was  at  the  village 
of  Emblichen,  within  a  league  of  the  besieged  city.  That 
night  a  peasant  was  captured  with  letters  from  Verdugo  to 
the  Governor  of  Coeworden,  giving  information  that  he  in¬ 
tended  to  make  an  assault  on  the  besiegers  on  the 
night  of  6th-7th  September.  G  7  Scpt* 

Thus  forewarned,  Maurice  took  the  best  precautions  and 
calmly  within  his  entrenchments  awaited  the  onslaught. 
Punctual  to  his  appointment,  Verdugo  with  his  whole  force, 
yelling  “  Victoria  !  Victoria  !”  made  a  shirt-attack,  or  cami- 
ciata — the  men  wearing  their  shirts  outside  their  armour  to 
distinguish  each  other  in  the  darkness— upon  that  portion  of 
the  camp  which  was  under  command  of  Iiohenlo.  They 
were  met  with  determination  and  repulsed,  after  fighting  all 
night,  with  a  loss  of  three  hundred  killed  and  a  proportionate 


168 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVI. 


number  of  wounded.  The  Netherlander  had  but  three  killed 
and  six  wounded.  Among  the  latter,  however,  was  Lewis 
William,  who  received  a  musket-ball  in  the  belly,  but  re¬ 
mained  on  the  ground  until  the  enemy  had  retreated.  It 
was  then  discovered  that  his  wound  was  not  mortal — the 
intestines  not  having  been  injured — and  he  was  soon  about 
his  work  again.19  Prince  Maurice,  too,  as  usual,  incurred  the 
remonstrances  of  the  deputies  and  others  for  the  reckless 
manner  in  which  he  exposed  himself  wherever  the  tire  was 
hottest.20  He  resolutely  refused,  .however,  to  permit  his 
cavalry  to  follow  the  retreating  enemy.  His  object  was 
Coeworden — a  prize  more  important  than  a  new  victory  over 
the  already  defeated  Spaniards  would  prove — and  this  object 
he  kept  ever  before  his  eyes. 

This  was  Verdugo’s  first  and  last  attempt  to  relieve  the 
city.  He  had  seen  enough  of  the  young  prince’s  tactics  and 
had  no  further  wish  to  break  his  teeth  against  those  scientific 
entrenchments.  The  Spaniards  at  last,  whether  they  wore 
their  shirts  inside  or  outside  their  doublets,  could  no  longer 
handle  the  Dutchmen  at  pleasure.  That  people  of  butter, 

as  the  iron  duke  of  Alva  was  fond  of  calling  the  Nether- 

* 

landers,  were  grown  harder  with  the  pressure  of  a  twenty-five 
years’  war. 

Five  days  after  the  sanguinary  camiciata  the  besieged 
offered  to  capitulate.  The  trumpet  at  which  the  proud  Wan 
den  Berg  had  hinted  for  six  months  later  arrived  on 
12  Sept.  12th  September.  Maurice  was  glad  to  get  his 
town.  His  “  little  soldiers  ”  did  not  insist,  as  the  Spaniards 
and  Italians  were  used  to  do  in  the  good  old  days,  on  un¬ 
limited  murder,  rape,  and  fire,  as  the  natural  solace  and  reward 
of  their  labours  in  the  trenches.  Civilization  had  made  some 


19  Bor,  Reyd,  Meteren,  ubi  sup. 
“  My  brother  William,”  wrote  Count 
John  to  his  father,  “  was  shot  in  the 
right  side,  so  that  the  ball  came  out 
again  near  the  navel ;  but,  thank  God, 
there  is  no  danger  of  his  life,  as  all 

the  barbers  agree . After  he 

had  received  the  shot  he  remained 


more  than  an  hour  fighting  on  horse 
back  and  afoot  before  his  wound  was 
bound  up,  and  he  could  not  be  in¬ 
duced  by  any  persuasion  to  leave  the 
ground.” — Groen  v.  Prinsterer,  Ar¬ 
chives,  II.  s.  i.  207,  208. 

20  Bor,  Reyd,  Meteren,  ubi  sup. 


CAPITULATION  OF  COE  WORDEN. 


169 


1592. 


progress,  at  least  in  the  Netherlands.  Maurice  granted  good 
terms,  such  as  he  had  been  in  the  habit  of  conceding  to  all 
captured  towns.  Yan  den  Berg  was  courteously  received  by 
his  cousins,  as  he  rode  forth  from  the  place  at  the  head  of 
what  remained  of  his  garrison,  five  hundred  in  number,  with 
colours  flying,  matches  burning,  bullet  in  mouth,  and  with  all 
their  arms  and  baggage  except  artillery  and  ammunition,  and 
the  heroic  little  Lewis,  notwithstanding  the  wound  in  his 
belly,  got  on  horseback  and  greeted  him  with  a  cousinly 
welcome  in  the  camp.21 

The  city  was  a  most  important  acquisition,  as  already  suffi¬ 
ciently  set  forth,  hut  Queen  Elizabeth,  much  misinformed  on 
this  occasion,  was  inclined  to  undervalue  it.  She  wrote  accord¬ 
ingly  to  the  States,  reproaching  them  for  using  all  that 
artillery  and  that  royal  force  against  a  mere  castle  and  earth- 
heap,  instead  of  attempting  some  considerable  capital,  or 
going  in  force  to  the  relief  of  Brittany.22  The  day  was  to 
come  when  she  would  acknowledge  the  advantage  of  not 
leaving  this  earth-heap  in  the  hands  of  the  Spaniard.  Mean¬ 
time,  Prince  Maurice — the  season  being  so  far  advanced — 
gave  the  world  no  further  practical  lessons  in  the  engineering 
science,  and  sent  his  troops  into  winter  quarters. 

These  were  the  chief  military  phenomena  in  France  and 
Flanders  during  three  years  of  the  great  struggle  to  establish 
Philip's  universal  dominion. 


21  Bor,  Reyd,  Meteren. 

21  “  Hasardants  vos  gens  es  entre-  j 
prinses  incertaines  et  de  peu  de  con¬ 
sequence  eu  esgard  que  le  poids  des 
affaires  qui  conscernent  le  bien  de 
notre  estat  et  du  votre  consiste  plus 
•  tost  a  empeclier  la  perte  de  Bretagne, 


le  recouvrement  vous  devroit  estre 
beaucoup  plus  recommande  que  de 
vous  attaquer  a  ung  petit  chateau  tel 
qu’estCoevorden  ou  aultre  semblable.” 
Queen  to  the  States-General,  23  July, 
1592.  (Hague  Archives  MS.) 


9 


170 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVII. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

Negotiations  between  Queen  Elizabeth  and  the  States  —  Aspect  of  affairs 
between  England  and  the  Netherlands  —  Complaints  of  the  Hollanders  on 
the  piratical  acts  of  the  English  —  The  Dutch  Envoy  and  the  English 
Government  —  Caron’s  interview  with  Elizabeth  —  The  Queen  promises 
redress  of  grievances. 

It  is  now  necessary  to  cast  a  glance  at  certain  negotiations 
on  delicate  topics  which  had  meantime  been  occurring  between 

Queen  Elizabeth  and  the  States. 

England  and  the  republic  were  bound  together  by  ties  so 
close  that  it  was  impossible  for  either  to  injure  the  other 
without  inflicting  a  corresponding  damage  on  itself.  Never¬ 
theless  this  very  community  of  interest,  combined  with  a  close 
national  relationship— for  in  the  European  family  the  Nether- 
landers  and  English  were  but  cousins  twice  removed — with 
similarity  of  pursuits,  with  commercial  jealousy,  with  an 
intense  and  ever  growing  rivalry  for  that  supremacy  on  the 
ocean  towards  which  the  monarchy  and  the  republic  were  so 
earnestly  struggling,  with  a  common  passion  for  civil  and 
religious  freedom,  and  with  that  inveterate  habit  of  self-asser¬ 
tion — the  healthful  but  not  engaging  attribute  of  all  vigorous 
nations — which  strongly  marked  them  both,  was  rapidly 
producing  an  antipathy  between  the  two  countries  which  time 
was  likely  rather  to  deepen  than  efface.  And  the  national 
divergences  were  as  potent  as  the  traits  of  resemblance  in 
creating  this  antagonism. 

The  democratic  element  was  expanding  itself  in  the 
republic  so  rapidly  as  to  stifle  for  a  time  the  oligarchical 
principle  which  might  one  day  be  developed  out  of  the  same 
matrix  ;  while,  despite  the  hardy  and  adventurous  spirit  which 
characterised  the  English  nation  throughout  all  its  grades, 
there  was  never  a  more  intensely  aristocratib  influence  in  the 


1592. 


ELIZABETH  AND  HER  COURTIERS. 


171 


world  than  the  governing  and  directing  spirit  of  the  England 
of  that  age. 

It  was  impossible  that  the  courtiers  of  Elizabeth  and  the 
burgher-statesmen  of  Holland  and  Friesland  should  sympathize 
with  each  other  in  sentiment  or  in  manner.  The  republicans 
in  their  exuberant  consciousness  of  having  at  last  got  rid  of 
kings  and  kingly „ paraphernalia  in  their  own  land — for  since 
the  rejection  of  the  sovereignty  offered  to  France  and 
England  in  1585  this  feeling  had  become  so  predominant  as 
to  make  it  difficult  to  believe  that  those  offers  had  been  in 
reality  so  recent  —  were  insensibly  adopting  a  frankness, 
perhaps  a  roughness,  of  political  and  social  demeanour  which 
was  far  from  palatable  to  the  euphuistic  formalists  of  other 
countries.  , 

Especially  the  English  statesmen,  trained  to  approach 
their  sovereign  with  almost  Oriental  humility,  and  ac¬ 
customed  to  exact  for  themselves  a  large  amount  of 
deference,1  could  ill  brook  the  free  and  easy  tone  occasionally 
adopted  in  diplomatic  and  official  intercourse  by  these  upstart 
republicans.  A  queen,  who  to  loose  morals,  imperious 
disposition,  and  violent  temper  united  as  inordinate  a  personal 
vanity  as  was  ever  vouchsafed  to  woman,  and  who  up  to  the 
verge  of  decrepitude  was  addressed  by  her  courtiers  in  the 
language  of  love-lorn  swain  to  blooming  shepherdess,2  could  . 


1  Tlie  Venetian  ambassador  Conta- 
ririi  relates  that  in  the  reign  of  James 
I.  the  great  nobles  of  England  were 
served  at  table  by  lackeys  on  their 
knees. 

2  Take,  for  example,  among  a  thou¬ 
sand  similar  effusions,  the  language 
used  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  at  exactly 
the  period  with  which  we  are  now 
occupied : — 

“I  that  was  wont  to  behold  her 
riding  like  Alexander,  walking  like 
Venus,  the  gentle  wind  blowing  her 
fair  hair  about  her  pure  cheeks,  like  a 
nymph  ;  sometimes  sitting  in  the 
shade  like  a  goddess,  sometimes  sing¬ 
ing  like  an  angel,  sometimes  playing 
like  Orpheus.  All  wounds  have  scars 
but  those  of  fantasy,  all  affections 
theirrelentingbutthoseof  womankind. 


All  those  times  past,  the  loves,  the 
sighs,  the  sorrows,  the  desires,  can 
they  not  weigh  down  one  frail  misfor¬ 
tune?  Cannot  one  drop  of  gall  be 
hidden  in  so  great  lieapsof  sweetness  V 
&c.  &c.  &c.  “  Do  with  me  now  there¬ 

fore  what  you  list— I  am  weary  of 
life,”  &c.  Ac.  &c.  Sir  W.  Raleigh  to 
Sir  R.  Cecil,  July,  1592.  (Murdin 
State  Papers,  ii.  657.)  Let  it  be  re¬ 
membered  that  the  Venus,  nymph, 
goddess,  angel,  thus  adjured  for  pity, 
had  j  ust  turned  her  sixtieth  year. 

The  Chevalier  Du  Maurier  relates 
in  his  memoirs  a  little  incident  which 
he  witnessed  when  residing  as  a  boy 
near  the  Hague,  his  father  being  then 
French  envoy  to  the  States  ;  and 
which  indicates  that  the  rustic  and 
uncourtly  independence  of  the  repub- 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVII. 


172 


naturally  find  but  little  to  ber  taste  in  tbe  hierarchy  of  Hans 
Brewer  and  Hans  Baker.  Thus  her  Majesty  and  her  courtiers, 
accustomed  to  the  faded  gallantries  with  which  the  serious 
affairs  of  State  were  so  grotesquely  intermingled,  took  it  ill 
when  they  were  bluntly  informed,  for  instance,  that  the  State 
council  of  the  Netherlands,  negotiating  on  Netherland  affairs, 
could  not  permit  a  veto  to  the  representatives  of  the  queen, 
and  that  this  same  body  of  Dutchmen  discussing  their  own 
business  insisted  upon  talking  Dutch  and  not  Latin. 

It  was  impossible  to  deny  that  the  young  Stadholder  was 
a  gentleman  of  a  good  house,  but  how  could  the  insolence  of  a 
common  citizen  like  John  of  Olden-Barneveld  be  digested? 
It  was  certain  that  behind  those  shaggy,  overhanging  brows 
there  was  a  powerful  brain  stored  with  legal  and  historic  lore, 
which  supplied  Eloquence  to  an  ever-ready  tongue  and  pen. 
Yet  these  facts,  difficult  to  gainsay,  did  not  make  the 
demands  so  frequently  urged  by  the  States-General  upon 
the  English  Government  for  the  enforcement  of  Dutch  rights 
and  the  redress  of  English  wrongs  the  more  acceptable. 

Bodley,  Gilpin,  and  the  rest  were  in  a  chronic  state  of 


licans  had  not  diminished  with  the 
lapse  of  a  few  more  years,  and  with 
the  corresponding  increase  of  popular 
wealth  and  strength  throughout  the 
commonwealth.  The  unlucky  elector 
palatine,  ex-king  of  Bohemia,  a  refu¬ 
gee  in  Holland  since  the  battle  of 
Prague,  was  hunting  hares  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Du  Maurier’s  house. 
In  the  ardour  of  the  chase,  Frederick, 
having  intruded  with  dogs  and  horses 
upon  the  turnip-field  of  a  wealthy 
peasant,  saw  himself  pursued  with 
loud  cries  by  the  incensed  proprietor, 
accompanied  by  a  very  big  farm-ser¬ 
vant.  Both  were  armed  with  pitch- 
forks,  and  the  farmer  himself  presented 
a  truly  respectable  as  well  as  formid¬ 
able  appearance,  dressed  as  he  hap¬ 
pened  to  be  in  his  holiday  suit  of 
black  Spanish  broadcloth,  with  an 
under  jacket  of  Florence  ratinet, 
adorned  with  massive  silver  buttons. 
Flourishing  his  pitchfork,  and  making 
no  other  salutation,  he  bawled  out, 
“  King  of  Bohemia,  King  of  Bohemia, 
what  do  you  mean  by  trampling  on 


my  turnips?  Don’t  you  know  how 
much  pains  it  costs  to  plant  and  to 
weed  them?”  The  luckless  son-in- 
law  of  the  British  sovereign  had  no¬ 
thing  for  it  but  to  apologise  for  the 
trespass,  and  to  beat  as  rapid  a  re¬ 
treat  before  the  Dutch  farmer  as  he 
had  recently  done  before  the  Duke  of 
Lorraine  and  the  Emperor  Ferdinand. 
Memoires  de  Messire  Aubery  du  Mau- 
rier,  pp.  252,  253. 

Perhaps  it  was  as  well  for  the  pro¬ 
gress  of  mankind — even  at  the  occa¬ 
sional  sacrifice  of  courtesy  to  royalty  in 
difficulties — that  there  should  have 
been  a  corner  of  the  earth  where  the 
theory  of  natural  m  asters  and  guardians 
for  the  people  had  already  received  so 
rude  a.sliock  as  in  Holland,  and  where 
not  only  the  boor  but  the  boor’s  tur¬ 
nips  were  safe  from  being  trampled 
upon.  What  more  poignant  satire  on 
human  nature  than  is  contained  in  this 
very  English  word  boor !  The  builder, 
the  planter,  the  creator — the  Bauer 
in  short — is  made  to  be  identical  with 
the  vulgar  clown. 


1592,  DISSATISFACTION  AMONG  THE  NETHERLANDERS.  173 


exasperation  with  the  Hollanders,  not  only  because  of  their 
perpetual  complaints,  hut  because  their  complaints  were 
perpetually  just. 

The  States- General  were  dissatisfied,  all  the  Netherlander 
were  dissatisfied — and  not  entirely  without  reason — that  the 
English,  with  whom  the  republic  was  on  terms  not  only  of 
friendship  but  of  alliance,  should  burn  their  ships  on  the  high 
seas,  plunder  their  merchants,  and  torture  their  sea-captains 
in  order  to  extort  information  as  to  the  most  precious  portions 
of  their  cargoes.3  Sharp  language  against  such  malpractices 


3  “  Nommement  que  pardessus  ung 
nombre  infini  de  pilleries,  forces  et 
outrages,  certain  navire  de  Pierre 
Piateoz,  au  commencement  de  ce  mois 
venant  d’Espaigne  vers  ces  Provinces 
Unies  charge  d’une  grande  somme 
d’argent  et  marchandises  pracieuses  a 
ete  force, prins  et  mene  a  Plymouth  par 
le  subject  de  V.  M.  le  Capitaine  Mar¬ 
tin  Frobisher  avec  ung  aultre  navire 
charge  de  sel.  Lesquels  navires  sout 
tenus  comme  pour  bonne  prinse  soubs 
pretexte  premierement,  comme  nous 
entendons,  que  le  diet  Pierre  se  seroit 
mis  en  defence  contre  le  navire  de 
V.  M.  lequel  il  na  cognu  ny  peu 
cognoistre  pour  le  grand  nombre  de  la 
diversite  des  navires  mesmes  des  pi¬ 
rates  qui  journellement  s’aydant  en 
mer  du  nom  des  navires  et  gens  de 
V.  M.  forcent  et  pillent  les  navires  et 
marchandises  des  inhabitants  de  ce 
pays  soubs  toute  couleur  et  pretexte 
traictans  les  mariniers  de  toutes  sortes 
de  tourments.  Et  secondement  qu’ils 
disent  qu’en  iceux  deux  navires 
auroient  este  quelques  biens  et  mar¬ 
chandises  appartenans  aux  Espagnols 
ou  autres  subjects  et  tenants  le  parti 
des  ennemis :  le  tout  contre  la  verite  et 
dont  il  n’apparoistra  jamais  ainsi  que 
le  les  proprietaires  et  mariniers  disent. 
Ges  practiques  et  traverses  dont  ils 
usent  journellement  meme  par  me¬ 
naces,  concussions  et  violences  pour 
fair  confesser  aux  bons  gens  ce  qu’on 
veuille  ou  de  les  constraindre  a  aban- 
donner  leurs  biens  et  marchandises 
ainsi  prinses,  sent  si  notoires  et  en  si 
grand  nombre  que  nous  tenons  tout 
certain  qu’elles  sont  assez  cognues  et 
decouvertes  et  indubitablement  appa- 
roistront  encores  avec  le  temps  plus 


clairement  a  V.  M.  ”  &c.  &c.  &c. 
States-General  to  the  Queen,  1  Nov. 
1590.  (Hague  Archives  MS.) 

“  Il  n’y  a  chose  que  nous  faisons 
avecq  plus  de  regret  que  de  molester 
si  souventes  fois  V.  M.  par  nos  plainc- 
tes  a  l’endroict  des  doleances  des  mar- 
chants  de  ces  pays,  des  pilleries, 
dommages  et  exces  que  leur  font  con- 
tinuellement  en  mer  les  subjects 
d’lcelle  par  pure  force  et  violence  sans 
cause  ny  aulcune  raison,  au  lieu  de 
I’ordre  et  remede  qui  leur  avoit  este 
promis  et  asseure.  D’aultant  que  s<ja- 
vons  combien  cola  doibt  desplaire  a 
une  Princesse  Cliretienne  et  droictu- 
riere  dont  V.  M.  est  si  renommee  par 
tout  le  monde.  Mais  comme  voyons 
les  diets  exces  s'accroistre  journelle¬ 
ment  en  telles  exorbitances  et  plus  ni 
moings  si  les  Anglais  s’estoient  de¬ 
clares  ennemis  de  ces  pays  et  faisoient 
leur  equippaige  tout  expres  pour 
quant  nos  marcliands  ruiner,  aussi  du 
tout  nostre  estat,  ou  du  moins  par  ce 
moyen  le  mettre  en  rage  et  desespoir 
du  peuple  ;  si  comme  nous  est  apparu 
par  verifications  legitimes  et  aucten- 
tiques  que  le  24e  du  mois  de  Mai 
dernier  une  pinasse  nomme  le  Jeune 
Lion  ou  estoit  capitaine  ung  appelle 
Manser  et  deux  aultres  navires  Anglois 
dont  Tung  avoit  nom  Susan  et  estoit 
commande  par  le  capitaine  Henry,  ont 
sans  mot  sonner  furieusement  attaque 
par  coups  d’artillerie  et  investie  ung 
navire  de  la  Veere  appelle  le  Griphon, 
qui  avoit  pour  marinier  Gole  Adrians- 
zoen,  parti  auparavant  de  St.  Lucas  et 
estoit  charge  de  grande  quantite  d’ar¬ 
gent,  perles  et  conchenille  le  quel  ils 
ont  entierement  spolie  et  pille  apres 
qu’ils  avoient  faict  prisonniers  et 


174 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVII. 


was  considered  but  proof  of  democratic  vulgarity.  Yet  it 
would  be  hard  to  maintain  that  Martin  Frobisher,  Mansfield, 
Grenfell,  and  the  rest  of  the  sea-kings,  with  all  their  dash  and 
daring  and  patriotism,  were  not  as  unscrupulous  pirates  as 
ever  sailed  blue  water,  or  that  they  were  not  apt  to  commit 
their  depredations  upon  friend  and  foe  alike. 

On  the  other  hand,  by  a  liberality  of  commerce  in  extra¬ 
ordinary  contrast  with  the  practice  of  modern  times,  the 
Netherlander  were  in  the  habit  of  trading  directly  with 
the  arch-enemy  of  both  Holland  and  England,  even  in  the 
midst  of  their  conflict  with  him,  and  it  was  complained  of 
that  even  the  munitions  of  war  and  the  implements  of  navi¬ 
gation  by  which  Spain  had  been  enabled  to  effect  its  foot-hold 
in  Brittany,  and  thus  to  threaten  the  English  coast,  were 
derived  from  this  very  traffic.4  • 


gelienne  inlmmainement  plusieurs  de 
eeulx  qui  y  estoient  dedans,  les  con- 
traignants  de  signer  qu’ils  n’avoient 
prins  que  dix-sept  sacqs  d’argent  et 
liuict  tonneaux  de  la  dicte  conchenille 
en  lieu  de  cent  ct  quinze  sacqs,  toutes 
les  perles  et  conchenille  ;  non  distant 
que  le  dit  maistre  marinier  leur  fait 
voir  qu’ils  estoient  de  la  Vere  et  que 
le  tout  appartenoit  a  des  marcliands  de 
Zelande,”  &c.  &c.  &c.  States-General 
to  the  Queen,  26  June,  1592.  (Hague 
Archives  MS.) 

“  Outre  le  mescontement  que  les 
peuples  out  par  les  continuelles  larcins 
et  pilleries  de  la  mer  par  ou  ils  sont 
entierement  alienez  de  l’affection  quils 
souloient  porter  a  la  nation  Anglaise,” 
&c.  &c.  &c.  Noel  de  Caron  to  the 
Lord  Treasurer,  July,  1592.  (Hague 
Archives  MS.) 

“  The  merchants  of  Middleburgli 
have  of  late  received  such  losses  as 
they  say  by  our  countrymen  that  her 
M.’s  letter  whereby  she  signifies  the 
release  of  four  ships  is  not  medicine 
strong  enough  any  way  to  appease 
their  griefs.  They  complain  of  two 
ships  taken  on  the  coast  of  Portugal 
worth  30,00(W.  sterling,  and  the  same 
day  I  did  deliver  the  queen’s  letter 
they  had  already  had  news  of  the 
taking  of  four  ships  more  going  out  of 
this  river  worth  as  they  say  as  much 
as  the  other  two.  These  actions  make 


them  almost  desperate,  as  I  will  write 
more  at  large  unto  yr  Lo.  :  upon 
the  return  of  the  deputies,  which 
they  of  Zeland  did  send  unto  Holld 
to  let  them  know  of  these  prisals, 

and  to  take  some  course  for  it . 

I  am  assured  that  before  this  happened 
all  the  country  except  Amsterdam 
were  resolved  to  give  contentment 
unto  the  queen  touching  the  articles 
of  the  traffic.  What  they  will  now  do 
I  know  not,  for  these  things  have 
greatly  stirred  the  humours  here,  and 
if  it  be  continued,  not  unlikely  that 
some  inconvenience  may  happen  which 
in  my  opiuion  were  good  for  her  M. 
to  foresee,  since  the  profit  comes  little, 
as  far  as  I  can  see,  to  herself,  and  the 
merchants  and  committee  of  these 
towns,  who  are  the  men  that  most  affect 
her  M.  and  her  service,  will  have 
their  hearts  alienated  from  her  if  they 
see  their  goods,  which  is  their  life, 
taken  from  them  by  her  M.’s  subjects, 
where  they  look  to  be  protected  by 
her.”  Sir  R.  Sidney  to  Burghley,  29 
Oct.  1590.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.) 

4  “  Toucliant  ce  que  vous  debvriez 
proliiber  le  commerce  et  transporte- 
ment  de  vivres  et  munitions  d’icy  en 
Espagne.  Qui  est  une  chose  prac- 
tique  aussi  ouvertement  et  hardiment 
par  certains  marcliands  de  Hollande  et 
Zelande  que  s’il  ny  avoit  point  d’ini- 
mitie  entre  les  Espaignols  et  eux. 


1592.  COMMERCE  BETWEEN  BELLIGERENT  POWERS.  175 


The  Hollanders  replied  that,  according  to  their  contract 
with  England,  they  were  at  liberty  to  send  as  many  as  forty 
or  fifty  vessels  at  a  time  to  Spain  and  Portugal,  that  they  had 
never  exceeded  the  stipulated  number,  that  England  freely 
engaged  in  the  same  traffic  herself  with  the  common  enemy, 
that  it  was  not  reasonable  to  consider  cordage  or  dried  fish  or 
shooks  and  staves,  butter,  eggs,  and  corn  as  contraband  of 
war,  that  if  they  were  illegitimate  the  English  trade  was 
vitiated  to  the  same  degree,  and  that  it  would  be  utterly 
hopeless  for  the  provinces  to  attempt  to  carry  on  the  war, 
except  by  enabling  themselves,  through  the  widest  and  most 
unrestricted  foreign  commerce,  even  including  the  enemy’s 
realms,  to  provide  their  nation  with  the  necessary  wealth  to 
sustain  so  gigantic  a  conflict.5 


Tellement  que  si  les  navires  du  Roy  en 
Biscaye  et  Gallice  Cales  et  aultres 
parties  meridionales  d’Espagne  n’eus- 
sent  point  este  fournis  l’an  passe  et  ce 
printems  de  poudre  et  de  cordage  par 
les  marcliands  de  ces  pays  cy,  n’auroit 
peu  envoyer  aulcunes  forces  en  Bre¬ 
tagne.  Or  sur  ces  vostres  procedures 
et  aultres  semblables  le  roy  de  France 
et  ses  conseillers,  le  Prince  Dombes 
son  lieutenant  en  Bretagne  et  son 
ambassadeur  en  Angleterre,  et  de  faict 
tous  homines  en  general  tant  princes 
qu’aultres  qui  ont  la  commune  cause  en 
recommendation,  se  plaignent  grande- 
ment  tous  les  jours  et  addressent  leurs 
plaintes  a  S.  M.  presumans  qu’elle 
ayant  pris  la  protection  de  ces  pays  cy 
pourroit  et  debvroit  par  ses  moyens  et 
authorite  redresser  ung  si  notoire  des- 
ordre  pour  la  preservation  d’elle  mesme 
et  de  tous  ceux  qui  sont  touchez  en 
mesme  cas.  Mesmes  dans  ce  peu  de 
jours  ledict  Ambassadeur  a  informe 
S.  M.  d’une  grande  quantite  de  muni¬ 
tions  porte  a  S.  Malo  et  Nantes  en 
Bretagne  et  de  plus  de  20  navires 
charges  de  ble  et  de  quelque  provision 

de  poudre . Ces  actions  illi- 

cites  rendent  S.  M.  tellement  offensee 
qu’elle  pense  avoir  cause  de  se  repentir 
d’avoir  oncques  pris  la  defence  de  ces 
pays  contre  le  Roy  d’Espagne,  consi- 
derant  que  les  armes  et  les  forces 
d’lcelluy  par  beaucoup  d’annees  ont 
ete  entretenues  et  maintenues  en  ces 


I  Pays  Bas  par  le  commun  transporte- 
ment  de  vivres  et  fourniture  de  guerre 
a  icelles  qui  s’est  faict  par  permission 
et  licence  d’icy,”  &c.  &c.  &c.  Bodley 
to  the  States-General,  2  June,  1591. 
(Hague  Archives,  MS.) 

“Quand  vous  aultres  pour  vos  advan¬ 
tages  particuliers  laissez  fournir  de 
toutes  sortes  de  commodites  le  diet 
ennemi  commun  et  puissant,  et  a  ceste 
heure  mesme  que  pour  l’amour  de  vous 
nous  sommes  foreclose  de  tout  com¬ 
merce  a  la  ruine  totale  de  plusieurs  de 
nos  subjects,  lesquels  coniine  ils  nous 
ont  este  plus  chers  que  la  vie  ainsi  ne 
pouvons  que  nous  ressentir  de  leurs 
plaintes  touchant  les  traffiques  qui  se 
font  journellement  soubz  des  noms 
empruntes  et  simulez,  ce  qui  s’est 
directement  decouvert,”  &c.  &c.  &c. 
Queen  to  the  States-General,  13  Feb. 
1593.  (Hague  Archives  MS.) 

5  “  Nous  n’avons  encore  peu  per¬ 
suader  a  V.  M.  combien  le  transport 
de  quelques  vivres  ensemble  la  navi¬ 
gation  et  trafficq  avecq  et  vers  le  pays 
de  West  importent  au  bien  et  conser¬ 
vation  de  nostre  estat.  Car  ny  ayant 
mine  d’or  ni  d’autre  metal  es  diets  pays 
dont  l’on  pourroit  tirer  les  frais  d’icelle 
guerre,  d’aultre  part  l’affluence  annu- 
elle  que  Dieu  y  donne  de  beurre, 
fromage  et  quelques  autres  vivres,  y 
estant  par  Sa  divine  grace  si  abondante 
que  la  dixieme  part  ny  peult  estre 
consumee/et  la  multitude  du  peuple 


176 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVII. 


Here  were  ever  flowing  fountains  of  bitterest  discussion 


addonne  au  trafficque  et  manufacture 
y  estant  grande  et  si  independante 
que  faisant  tant  seulement  le  moindre 
semblant  de  les  y  vouloir  empesclier, 
la  plus  grande  partie  d’iceux  s’en  de- 
partiroit  vers  les  pays  voisins  tirant 
quand  a  eulx  une  infinite  de  navires 
et  mariniers  comme  l’experience  a 
assez  montre  niesme  du  terns  du  dit 
feu  Mons1'  le  Comte  de  Leycester  que 
nous  peult  on  imputer  que  les  bene- 
ficions  et  en  tirons  les  moyens  de  nostre 
conservation  ?  L’on  nous  objecte  que 
les  notres  vont  querir  les  grains  en 
Oostlande  et  les  meincnt  vers  les  pays 
de  West  subjects  a  l’ennemy,  qu’ 
icelluy  s’en  nourrit  et  fortifie.  Nous 
le  croions,  mais  l’on  ne  nous  sauroit 
persuader  (encores  que  la  trafficq  des 
nostres  cessat)  que  ceulx  d’Oostlande 
vouldroient  ou  pourraient  laisser  perir 
l’abondance  des  grains  y  croissant  an- 
nuellemente  (qui  sont  presque  l’unic- 
que  moyen  de  leur  trafficq  et  soutien 
de  leur  vie)  et  que  sachant  qu’ail- 
leurs  y  en  auroit  disette  et  traitte,  eux 
et  autres  marcliants  et  mariniers  de 
divers  royaumes  et  pays  neles  y  trans¬ 
portent  et  ny  a  apparence  de  la  leur 
pouvoir  empesclier  (quant  ce  ne  servit 
que  pour  le  gaing  exorbitant  et  com- 
moditez  qu’ils  en  tirent)  non  plus  que 
d’empesclier  le  Roy  d’Espagne  de  s’en 
faire  pouvoir  a  quelque  prix  que  ce 
fust  d’illecq  ou  d’ailleurs.  Et  depen¬ 
dant  le  transport  de  grains  estrangers 
d’icy,  que  deviendra  si  grande  quantite 
qui  y  est  ?  puisque  par  le  grace  de 
Dieu  ces  pays  en  produisent  aultant  et 
plus  qu’il  en  fault  pour  la  nourriture 
des  manans  d’iceulx.  Et  qui  croira 
qu’on  y  amenera  d’aultres  pour  y 
demourer  establiz  comme  en  ung  sacq 
en  peril  de  sy  gaster  .  .  .  Cepen- 

dant  cesseroient  les  convois  et  licentes 
d’ entree  et  issue  (principal  revenu  de 
ces  pays)  et  les  marcliants  et  mariniers 
qui  n’ont  aultre  moyen  de  vivre  et 
nourrir  leurs  femmes  et  enfans  se  trans- 
porteroient  avec  leur  navires  en  Dane- 
mark,Norweglien,  Hambourg,  Dansig, 
voire  memes  en  Pologne  et  ailleurs. 

.  .  .  .  Dont  ensuivroit  non  seulement 
tres  grande  diminution  des  imports  et 
autres  moyens  destines  pour  l’entre- 
tien  de  la  guerre,  mais  aussi  transport 
et  alienation  des  navires  et  mariniers 


(principale  iorce  de  ces  pays) . 

11  faut  que  ce  n’est  pas  par  gaiete  de 
cceur  que  toutes  nos  terres,  maisons 
rentes  et  aultres  bien  immeubles, 
mesmes  aussi  du  bestail,  nous  paions 
liberalement  une  grande  partie  du  fruit 
et  revenu  d’iceulx  et  que  de  nostre 
manger,  boire,  vestemens,  cbauffage  et 
autres  consumptions  pardessus  le  prix 
nous  payons  pour  Unpots  presque  la 
xaleur  d’icelles.  Et  toutes  fois  tout  cela 
n’est  bastant  pour  en  fournir  la  moitie 
des  frais  de  notre  guerre  sans  y  com- 
prendre  une  infinite  de  dettes  es  quelles 
le  pays  demeure  oblige  pardessus  t ou- 
tes  autres  charges,  que  les  provinces 
supportent  a  l’entretien  de  leurs  che¬ 
ques  escluses  et  dependances  contre  les 
inondations  des  rivieres  et  de  la  mer 
contre  lesquels  Us  soutiennent  aussi 

comme  une  continuelle  guerre . 

II  est  evident  qu’il  importe  singuliere- 
ment  pour  la  conservation  de  ces  dits 
pays  et  service  de  la  cause  commune 
que  la  navigation  et  trafficque  des 
ditsvivres  demeurent  libres.  Et'sup- 
plions  tres  liumblement  qu’il  plaise  a 
V.  M.  donner  l’ordre  que  convient 
a  ce  que  au  dehors  et  contre  icelluy 
placcart  ladite  navigation  trafficq  et 
transport  ne  soient  par  ses  subjects 
aucunement  empeschez  ou  soubs 
quelque  pretexte  que  ce  soit  retardes, 
mesmes  aussy  de  vouloir  relaxer  et 
indemner  ceux  qui  sont  encore  em- 
pesches  et  endommages,”  &c.  &c.  &c. 
States-General  to  the  Queen,  4  May, 
1592.  (Hague  Archives  MS.) 

“  Dat  de  staten  eens  met  liaer  geac- 
cordeert  waren  dat  zy  maer  veertig  ofte 
vyftig  scliepen  teffens  en  zouden  zen- 

den . Nochtaens  dat  ick  haere 

Mat.  moclite  verzekeren  datter  geen 
vyftig  scliepen  in  alle  de  vlote  naer 

Spagnien  en  wilden,  &c.  &c . 

Want  ick  liaer  verzekerde  dat  ons 
Land  (Got  lof )  treffelycke  Coepluyden 
liadde  die  t’  in  alien  eecken  van  der 
werelt  besocliten.  Dat  seifs  haere 
natie  met  donse  in  Spaignien  traffic- 
queerde  ende  dat  donse  onder  de  na- 
men  van  de  Oosterlinglien  Deynen 
ende  andersints  moesten  trafficqueren, 
anders  dat  zy  in  groot  peryckel  waren 
als  zy  ontdekt  wierden,”  &c.  &c.  &c. 
Caron  to  the  States-General,  18  Nov. 
1592.  (Hague  Archives  MS.) 


1592.  THE  BRITISH  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  STATES. 


177 

and  recrimination.  It  must  be  admitted  however  that  there 
was  occasionally  an  advantage  in  the  despotic  and  summary 
manner  in  which  the  queen  took  matters  into  her  own  hands. 
It  was  refreshing  to  see  this  great  sovereign — who  was  so  well 
able  to  grapple  with  questions  of  State,  and  whose  very 
imperiousness  of  temper  impelled  her  to  trample  on  shallow 
sophistries  and  specious  technicalities — dealing  directly  with 
cases  of  piracy  and  turning  a  deaf  ear  to  the  counsellors,  who 
in  that,  as  in  every  age,  were  too  prone  to  shove  by  inter¬ 
national  justice  in  order  to  fulfil  municipal  forms. 

It  was,  however,  with  much  difficulty  that  the  envoy  of  the 
republic  was  able  to  obtain  a  direct  hearing  from  her  Majesty 
in  order  to  press  the  long  list  of  complaints  on  account  of  the 
English  piratical  proceedings  upon  her  attention.  He  inti¬ 
mated  that  there  seemed  to  be  special  reasons  why  the  great 
ones  about  her  throne  were  disposed  to  deny  him  access  to 
the  queen,  knowing  as  they  did  in  what  intent  he  asked  for 
interviews.  They  described  in  strong  language  the  royal 
wrath  at  the  opposition  recently  made  by  the  States  to 
detaching  the  English  auxiliaries  in  the  Netherlands  for  the 
service  of  the  French  king  in  Normandy,  hoping  thereby 
to  deter  him  fr.om  venturing  into  her  presence  with  a  list  of 
grievances  on  the  part  of  his  government.  “  I  did  my  best 
to  indicate  the  danger  incurred  by  such  transferring  of  troops 
at  so  critical  a  moment/'  said  Noel  de  Caron,  “  showing 
that  it  was  directly  in  opposition  to  the  contract  made  with 
her  Majesty.  But  I  got  no  answer  save  very  high  words  from 
the  Lord  Treasurer,  to  the  effect  that  the  States- General 
were  never  willing  to  agree  to  any  of  her  Majesty's  proposi¬ 
tions,  and  that  this  matter  was  as  necessary  to  the  States' 
service  as  to  that  of  the  French  king.  In  effect,  he  said 
peremptorily  that  her  Majesty  willed  it  and  would  not 
recede  from  her  resolution."  6 

The  envoy  then  requested  an  interview  with  the  queen 
before  her  departure  into  the  country. 

6  “  In  effecte  zeyde  absolutelycken  dat  Haer  Mat.  die  begeerde,  ende  van 
der  resolutie  niet  soude  afstaen.” — Caron  to  the  States-General,  30  July,  1592. 
(Hague  Archives  MS.) 

VOL.  III. — N 


178 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVII. 


Next  day,  at  noon,  Lord  Burghley  sent  word  that  she  was 
28  July,  to  leave  between  five  and  -six  o'clock  that  evening, 
1592.  and  that  the  minister  would  he  welcome  meantime 
at  any  hour. 

“  But  notwithstanding  that  I  presented  myself,"  said  Caron, 
“  at  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  I  was  unable  to  speak  to  her 
Majesty  until  a  moment  before  she  was  about  to  mount 
her  horse.  Her  language  was  then  very  curt.  She  persisted 
in  demanding  her  troops,  and  strongly  expressed  her  dissatis¬ 
faction  that  we  should  have  refused  them  on  what  she  called  so 
good  an  occasion  for  using  them.  I  was  obliged  to  cut  my 
replies  very  short,  as  it  was  already  between  six  and  seven 
o’clock,  and  she  was  to  ride  nine  English  miles  to  the  place 
where  she  was  to  pass  the  night.  I  was  quite  sensible,  however, 
that  the  audience  was  arranged  to  be  thus  brief,  in  order  that  I 
should  not  be  able  to  stop  long  enough  to  give  trouble,  and 
perhaps  to  find  occasion  to  renew  our  complaints  touching  the 
plunderings  and  robberies  committed  upon  us  at  sea.  This 
is  what  some  of  the  great  personages  here,  without  doubt,  are 
afraid  of,  for  they  were  wonderfully  well  overhauled  in  my 
last  audience.  I  shall  attempt  to  speak  to  her  again  before 
she  goes  very  deep  into  the  country.'' 7 

It  was  not  however  before  the  end  of  the  year,  after  Caron 
had  made  a  voyage  to  Holland  and  had  returned,  that  he 
14  Nov.  was  able  to  bring  the  subject  thoroughly  before 
1592.  her  Majesty.  On  the  14th  November  he  had  pre¬ 
liminary  interviews  with  the  Lord  High  Admiral  and  the 
Lord  Treasurer  at  Hampton  Court,  where  the  queen  was  then 
residing.  The  plundering  business  was  warmly  discussed 
between  himself  and  the  Admiral,  and  there  was  much 
quibbling  and  special  pleading  in  defence  of  the  practices 
which  had  created  so  much  irritation  and  pecuniary  loss  in 
Holland.  There  was  a  good  deal  of  talk  about  want  of  evi- 


7  Caron  to  the  States-General,  80 
July,  1592.  “Emrners  ick  liehbe  wel 
gevoelt  dat  deze  audientie  voor  my 
zoo  cort  geapposteert  was  omme  dat 
ick  liaer  niet  te  lange  zoude  blyven 
troubleren  ende  misckien  occasie  cry  ■ 


gen  om  onse  clagten  nopende  de 
plonderingen  ende  roverien  ter  zee  te 
vernyeuwen  twelck  sommige  groote 
allhier  zonder  twyffel  vreesen.  Want 
zy  wonderlycken  zeer  overliaelt  wier- 
den  in  myne  leste  audientie,”  &c.  &c. 


DISCUSSION  OF  COMPLAINTS. 


179 


1592. 

clenee  and  conflict  of  evidence,  which,  to  a  man  who  felt  as 
sure  of  the  facts  and  of  the  law  as  the  Dutch  envoy  did — unless 
it  were  according  to  public  law  for  one  friend  and  ally  to 
plunder  and  burn  the  vessels  of  another  friend  and  ally — was 
not  encouraging  as  to  the  probable  issue  of  his  interview  with 
her  Majesty.  It  would  be  tedious  to  report  the  conversation 
as  fully  as  it  was  laid  by  Noel  de  Caron  before  the  States- 
General ;  but  at  last  the  admiral  expressed  a  hope  that  the 
injured  parties  would  be  able  to  make  good  their  case.  At 
any  rate  he  assured  the  envoy  that  he  would  take  care  of 
Captain  Mansfield  for  the  present,  who  was  in  prison  with  two 
other  captains,  so  that  proceedings  might  be  had  against  them 
if  it  was  thought  worth  while.8 

Caron  answered  with  Dutch  bluntness.  “  I  recommended 
him  very  earnestly  to  do  this,”  he  said,  u  and  told  him 
roundly  that  this  was  by  all  means  necessary  for  the  sake  of 
his  own  honour.  Otherwise  no  man  could  ever  be  made 
to  believe  that  his  Excellency  was  not  seeking  to  get  his  own 
profit  out  of  the  affair.  But  he  vehemently  swore  and  pro¬ 
tested  that  this  was  not  the  case.” 9 

He  then  went  to  the  Lord  Treasurer's  apartment,  where  a 
long  and  stormy  interview  followed  on  the  subject  of  the 
withdrawal  of  the  English  troops.  Caron  warmly  insisted 
that  the  measure  had  been  full  of  danger  for  the  States  ;  that 
they  had  been  ordered  out  of  Prince  Maurice's  camp  at  a 
most  critical  moment  ;  that,  had  it  not  been  for  the  Stad- 
holder's  promptness  and  military  skill,  very  great  disasters  to 
the  common  cause  must  have  ensued  ;  and  that,  after  all, 
nothing  had  been  done  by  the  contingent  in  any  other  field, 
for  they  had  been  for  six  months  idle  and  sick,  without  ever 
reaching  Brittany  at  all. 

cc  The  Lord  Treasurer,  who,  contrary  to  his  custom,”  said 


8  Caron  to  tlie  States-General,  18 
Nov.  1592.  (Hague  Archives  MS.) 

9  “Ick  hebbe  liem  tzelve  zeer 
ernstelycken  gerecommandeert  endo 
dem  rondelyck  uitgeseyt  dat  zulex  om 
zyn  eerewille  allesints  betaemde  an- 
ders  dat  men  nyemant  en  soude  connen 


doen  gelooven  oft  zyne  E.  en  zoude 
willen  in  dese  zaecke  zyne  prouffit 
gedoen.  Zoo  liy  hoochelyken  swoer 
ende  protesteerde  dat  hy  niet  en 
liadde  nochte  oock  en  zoude  willen 
doen  A  Ibid. 


180 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVII, 


the  envoy,  “  had  been  listening  thus  long  to  what  I  had  to  say, 
now  observed  that  the  States  had  treated  her  Majesty  very 
ill,  that  they  had  kept  her  running  after  her  own  troops 
nearly  half  a  year,  and  had  offered  no  excuse  for  their  pro¬ 
ceedings/'  10 


It  would  he  superfluous  to  repeat  the  arguments  by  which 
Caron  endeavoured  to  set  forth  that  the  English  troops, 
sent  to  the  Netherlands  according  to  a  special  compact,  for  a 
special  service,  and  for  a  special  consideration  and  equivalent, 
could  not  honestly  he  employed,  contrary  to  the  wishes  of  the 
States-General,  upon  a  totally  different  service  and  in  another 
country.  The  queen  willed  it,  he  was  informed,  and  it  was 
ill-treatment  of  her  Majesty  on  the  part  of  the  Hollanders  to 
oppose  her  will.  This  argument  was  unanswerable. 


Soon  afterwards,  Caron  was  admitted  to  the  presence  of 
Elizabeth.  He  delivered,  at  first,  a  letter  from  the  States-  • 
General,  touching  the  withdrawal  of  the  troops.  The  queen 
instantly  broke  the  seal  and  read  the  letter  to  the  end. 
Coming  to  the  concluding  passage,  in  which  the  States 
observed  that  they  had  great  and  just  cause  highly  to  com¬ 
plain  on  that  subject,  she  paused,  reading  the  sentences  over 
twice  or  thrice,  and  then  remarked  : 

u  Truly  these  are  comical  people.11  I  have  so  often  been 
complaining  that  they  refused  to  send  my  troops,  and  now  the 
States  complain  that  they  are  obliged  to  let  them  go.  Yet 
my  intention  is  only  to  borrow  them  for  a  little  while,  because 
I  can  give  my  brother  of  France  no  better  succour  than  by 
sending  him  these  soldiers,  and  this  I  consider  better  than 
if  I  should  send  him  four  thousand  men.  I  say  again,  I  am 
only  borrowing  them,  and  surely  the  States  ought  never  to 
make  such  complaints,  when  the  occasion  was  such  a  favour¬ 
able  one,  and  they  had  received  already  sufficient  aid  from 
these  troops,  and  had  liberated  their  whole  country.  I  don't 
comprehend  these  grievances.  They  complain  that  I  witli- 


10  Caron  to  tlie  States-General,  18 
Nov.  1592.  (Hague  Archives  MS.) 

11  “  Voor  waer  zy  zyn  schacke  luy- 
den.”  Ibid.  The  conversation  was 
ot  course  in  French,  but  as  the  envoy 


made  his  report  to  the  States-General 
in  Dutch,  it  is  not  possible  to  give  the 
exact  words  which  the  queen  used.  It 
may  be  rendered  crafty,  queer,  droll, 
cunning,  or  funny. 


1592 


CARON’S  INTERVIEW  WITH  ELIZABETH. 


181 


draw  my  people,  and  meantime  they  are  still  holding  them 
and  have  brought  them  ashore  again.  They  send  me  frivolous 
excuses  that  the  skippers  don't  know  the  road  to  my  islands, 
which  is,  after  all,  as  easy  to  find  as  the  way  to  Caen,  for  it  is 
all  one.  I  have  also  sent  my  own  pilots  ;  and  I  complain 
bitterly  that  by  making  this  difficulty  they  will  cause  the 
loss  of  all  Brittany.  They  run  with  their  people  far  away 
from  me,  and  meantime  they  allow  the  enemy  to  become 
master  of  all  the  coasts  lying  opposite  me.  But  if  it  goes 
badly  with  me  they  will  rue  it  deeply  themselves." 12 

There  was  considerable  reason,  even  if  there  were  but  little 
justice,  in  this  strain  of  remarks.  Her  Majesty  continued  it 
for  some  little  time  longer,  and  it  is  interesting  to  see  the 
direct  and  personal  manner  in  which  this  great  princess 
handled  the  weightiest  affairs  of  state.  The  transfer  of  a 
dozen  companies  of  English  infantry  from  Friesland  to 
Brittany  was  supposed  to  be  big  with  the  fate  of  France, 
England,  and  the  Dutch  republic,  and  was  the  subject  of 
long  and  angry  controversy,  not  as  a  contested  point  of  prin¬ 
ciple,  in  regard  to  which  numbers,  of  course,  are  nothing,  but 
as  a  matter  of  practical  and  pressing  importance. 

“  Her  Majesty  made  many  more  observations  of  this  nature," 
said  Caron,  “  but  without  getting  at  all  into  a  passion,  and,  in 
my  opinion,  her  discourse  was  sensible,  and  she  spoke  with 
more  moderation  than  she  is  wont  at  other  times." 13 

The  envoy  then  presented  the  second  letter  from  the 
States-General  in  regard  to  the  outrages  inflicted  on  the 
Dutch  merchantmen.  The  queen  read  it  at  once,  and  ex¬ 
pressed  herself  as  very  much  displeased  with  her  people. 
She  said  that  she  had  received  similar  information  from 
Counsellor  Bodley,  who  had  openly  given  her  to  understand 
that  the  enormous  outrages  which  her  people  were  com¬ 
mitting  at  sea  upon  the  Netherlanders  were  a  public  scandal. 
It  had  made  her  so  angry,  she  said,  that  she  knew  not  which 


12  Caron  to  the  States-General,  18 
Nov.  1592.  (Hague  Archives' MS.) 

13  “  Doch  sonder  liaer  eenighsints  te 
moveren,  dan  naer  myns  bedunkens 


discours,  gewys  ende  veel  meerder 
moderatie  dan  zy  op  ander  tyden  wel 
was  gewoon.”  Ibid. 


182 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVII. 


way  to  turn.  She  would  take  it  in  hand  at  once,  for  she 
would  rathe!  make  oath  never  more  to  permit  a  single  ship 
of  war  to  leave  her  ports  than  consent  to  such  thieveries  and 
villanies.  She  told  Caron  that  he  would  do  well  to  have  his 
case  in  regard  to  these  matters  verified,  and  then  to  give  it 
into  her  own  hands,  since  otherwise  it  would  all  he  denied 
her  and  she  would  find  herself  unable  to  get  at  the  truth.14 

“  I  have  all  the  proofs  and  documents  of  the  merchants  by 
me,”  replied  the  envoy,  “  and,  moreover,  several  of  the  sea- 
captains  who  have  been  robbed  and  outraged  have  come  over 
with  me,  as  likewise  some  merchants  who  were  tortured  by 
burning  of  the  thumbs  and  other  kinds  of  torments.”  15 

This  disturbed  the  queen  very  much,  and  she  expressed 
her  wish  that  Caron  should  not  allow  himself  to  be  put  off 
with  delays  by  the  council,  but  should  insist  upon  all  due 
criminal  punishment,  the  infliction  of  which  she  promised  in 
the  strongest  terms  to  order  ;  for  she  could  never  enjoy  peace 
of  mind,  she  said,  so  long  as  such  scoundrels  were  tolerated 
in  her  kingdom.16 

The  envoy  had  brought  with  him  a  summary  of  the  cases, 
with  the  names  of  all  the  merchants  interested,  and  a  list  of  all 
the  marks  on  the  sacks  of  money  which  had  been  stolen.  The 
queen  looked  over  it  very  carefully,  declaring  it  to  be  her 
intention  that  there  should  be  no  delays  interposed  in  the 
conduct  of  this  affair  by  forms  of  special  pleading,  but  that 


14  “  Elide  liaer  zeer  tonvreden  ge- 
liouden  jegens  liaer  volck,  seyde  oock 
diergelyck  verstaen  te  liebben  van  den 
Raetslieer  Bodley  die  liaer  opentlycken 
adverteerde  dat  liet  een  open  sclian- 
dael  was  te  verstaen  d’enorme  stuk- 
ken  die  liaer  volck  ter  zee  op  de 
onsen  waren  doende,  twelck  (soo  sy 
seyde)  liaer  zoo  tornicli  gemaeckt 
liadde  datse  niet  wiste  waer  haer 
keeren,datse  oock  eens  voor  liaer  zoude 
nemen  ende  liever  versweren  nimmer- 
meer  meer  te  consenteren  eenicli  scbip 
van  oorlogen  te  laten'  uitgaen  dan 
occasie  van  zulkce  dievereyen  ende 
sclielmeryen  te  consenteren,  dat  ick 
daeromme  wel  zonde  doen  myn  zaecke 
in  dit  regard  te  doen  verifieren,  ende 
t’zelve  liaer  in  lianden  te  geven,  want 


anders  men  tzelve  liaer  al  ontkende 
ende  daer  geensints  tuscben  en  conste 
geraeken.”  Caron  to  tlie  States- 
General,  18  Nov.  1592. 

15  “  Ick  zedye  aen  liaere  Mai  dat 
ick  alle  de  bewysen  ende  documenten 
van  de  coopluyden  by  my  liadde,  oyck 
mede  datter  eenige  scliippers  die  men 
berooft  ende  geoultrageert  liadde  met 
my  waren  gecommen,oock  coopluyden 
die  men  deduymen liadde  gebrant  ende 
andere  tormenten  van  pynigen  aen 
liadde  gedaen,  twelck  liaer  oock  zeer 
ontstelde,”  &c.  &c.  &c.  Ibid. 

16  “  Seggende  dat  zy  ingerusticlie  yt 
niet  conde  geleven  als  men  zulcke 
sclielmen  in  liaer  Rycke  langer  zoude 
verdragen.”  Ibid. 


1592.  THE  QUEEN’S  PROMISE  OF  REDRESS.  183 

•  i  * 

speedy  cognizance  should  he  taken  of  the  whole,  and  that  the 
property  should  forthwith  he  restored.17 

She  then  sent  for  Sir  Robert  Cecil,  whom  she  directed  to 
go  at  once  and  tell  his  father,  the  Lord  Treasurer,  that  he 
was  to  assist  Caron  in  this  affair  exactly  as  if  it  were  her  own, 
It  was  her  intention,  she  said,  that  her  people  were  in  no  wise 
to  trouble  the  Hollanders  in  legitimate  mercantile  pursuits. 
She  added  that  it  was  not  enough  for  her  people  to  say 
that  they  had  only  been  seizing  Spaniards'  goods  and  money, 
but  she  meant  that  they  should  prove  it,  too,  or  else  they 
should  swing  for  it..18 

Caron  assured  her  Majesty  that  he  had  no  other  commission 
from  his  masters  than  to  ask  for  justice,  and  that  he  had  no 
instructions  to  claim  Spanish  property  or  enemy's  goods.  He 
had  brought  sufficient  evidence  with  him,  he  said,  to  give  her 
Majesty  entire  satisfaction. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  pursue  the  subject  any  farther.  The 
great  nobles  still  endeavoured  to  interpose  delays,  and  urged 
the  propriety  of  taking  the  case  before  the  common  courts 
of  law.  Caron,  strong  in  the  .  support  of  the  queen,  insisted 
that  it  should  be  settled,  as  her  Majesty  had  commanded, 
by  the  council,  and  it  was  finally  arranged  that  the  judge  of 
admiralty  should  examine  the  evidence  on  both  sides,  and 
then  communicate  the  documents  at  once  to  the  Lord  Trea¬ 
surer.  Meantime  the  money  was  to  be  deposited  with  certain 
aldermen  of  London,  and  the  accused  parties  kept  in  prison. 
The  ultimate  decision  was  then  to  be  made  by  the  council, 
ce  not  by  form  of  process  but  by  commission  thereto  ordained."19 
In  the  course  of  the  many  interviews  which  followed  between 
the  Hutch  envoy  and  the  privy  counsellors,  the  Lord  Admiral 


17  Caron  to  tlie  States-General,  18 
Nov.  1592.  (Hague  Archives  MS.) 

18  “  Dede  dien  volgende  roupen  Sir 
Robert  Cecil  die  zy  belaste  aen  den 
Tresorier  zynen  vader  te  gaen  zeggen 
dat  liy  my  liierinne  zoude  assisteren 
al  oft  liaer  eygen  zaecke  waere,  want 
liaere  intentie  (zoo  zy  zeyde)  niet  en 
was  dat  men  ons  eenigsins  in  onse 
coophandelinge  soude  troublercn  als 


wy  daerinne  op  reclit  handelden. 
Seyde  oock  dat  liaer  niet  genoeck  en 
was  dat  baer  volck  zeyde  dat  se 
Spaignaerts  gelt  ende  goet  geattra- 
peert  hadden,  maer  verstont  dat  zy 
tzelve  zouden  doen  blycken  ofte  met 
baren  hals  betaelen.”  Ibid. 

19  Ibid.  Also  Caron  to  States-Ge¬ 
neral,  12  Dec.  1592.  (Hague  Archives 
MS.) 


184 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  NXVII. 


stated  that  an  English  merchant  residing  in  the  Netherlands 
had  sent  to  offer  him  a  present  of  two  thousand  pounds  ster¬ 
ling,  in  case  the  affair  should  he  decided  against  the  Hol¬ 
landers.  He  communicated  the  name  of  the  individual  to 
Caron,  under  seal  of  secrecy,  and  reminded  the  Lord  Treasurer 
that  he  too  had  seen  the  letter  of  the  Englishman.  Lord 
Burghley  observed  that  he  remembered  the  fact  that  certain 
letters  had  been  communicated  to  him  by  the  Lord  Admiral, 
but  that  he  did  not  know  from  whence  they  came,  nor  any¬ 
thing  about  the  person  of  the  writer.20 

The  case  of  the  plundered  merchants  was  destined  to  drag 
almost  as  slowly  before  the  council  as  it  might  have  done  in 
the  ordinary  tribunals,  and  Caron  was  “  kept  running,”  as  he 
expressed  it,  “  from  the  court  to  London,  and  from  London  to 
the  court,”  and  it  was  long  before  justice  was  done  to  the 
sufferers.21  Yet  the  energetic  manner  in  which  the  queen 
took  the  case  into  her  own  hands,  and  the  intense  indignation 
with  which  she  denounced  the  robberies  and  outrages  which 
had  been  committed  by  her  subjects  upon  her  friends  and 
allies,  were  effective  in  restraining  such  wholesale  piracy  in 
the  future. 

On  the  whole,  however,  if  the  internal  machinery  is  exa¬ 
mined  by  which  the  masses  of  mankind  were  moved  at  this 
epoch  in  various  parts  of  Christendom,  we  shall  not  find 
much  reason  to  applaud  the  conformity  of  Governments  to  the 
principles  of  justice,  reason,  or  wisdom. 


20  “  Den  grooten  Adxnirael  began 
wederomme  te  seggen  van  zyne  adver- 
tentien  die  hy  op  dit  stuck  seifs  liadde 
gecrygen  nit  Zeelant,  dat  eenige  Coop- 
luyden  hem  hadden  doen  presenteren 
twee  duysent  pondsterlincx,  seggende 
totten  grooten  Tresorier  dat  hy  hem 
seifs  de  brieven  liadde  gecommuni- 
ceert  die  darop  antwoorde  wel  brieven 
gesien  te  liebben,  maer  wiste  niet  van 
wiens  die  quamen  doerdien  hy  den 
persoon  die  dezelve  gescreven  liadde 
niet  en  kende,  vraegde  daeromme  van 
wat  natieliy  was,  den  Admirael  zeyde 
dat  het  een  Engelscli  Coopman  was 
die  hy  oock  noemde.  Doch  dede  my 
erst  belooven  dat  ick  hem  niet  en  zoude 


willen  ontdecken,  zal  daeromme  synen 
naem  hier  naergelaten  worden,  ter 
wylen  ick  oock  tzelve  alsoo  beloofde, 
maer  lioclit  ans  adviseren  zulcke  ordre 
daerinno  te  stellen  als  den  dienst  van 
denlandewel  is  verlieyschende.  Den 
Admirael  zeyde  oock  dat  hy  wel  wiste 
dat  den  zelven  Coopman  alreede  der- 
waerts  over  in  dangierehadde  geweest, 
twelck  my  dede  antwoorden  dat  hy 
dan  voer  dees  tyt  voor  sulcx  most 
wesen  bekant.”  Report  of  Caron  to 
the  States-General.  10  Dec.  1592. 
(Hague  Archives  MS.) 

21  Letters  and  reports  of  Caron, 
passim.  Ibid. 


CHARACTER  OF  PHILIP. 


185 


1592. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 


Influence  of  tlie  rule  and  character  of  Pliilip  II.  —  Heroism  of  the  sixteenth 
century  —  Contest  for  the  French  throne  —  Character  and  policy  of  the 
Duke  of  Mayenne  —  Escape  of  the  Duke  of  Guise  from  Castle  Tours  —  Pro¬ 
positions  for  the  marriage  of  the  Infanta  —  Plotting  of  the  Catholic  party. 
—  Grounds  of  Philip’s  pretensions  to  the  crown  of  France  —  Motives  of 
the  Duke  of  Parma  maligned  by  Commander  Moreo  —  He  justifies  him¬ 
self  to  the  king  —  View  of  the  private  relations  between  Philip  and  the 
Duke  of  Mayenne  and  their  sentiments  towards  each  other  —  Disposition  of 
the  French  politicians  and  soldiers  towards  Philip  —  Peculiar  commer¬ 
cial  pursuits  of  Philip  —  Confused  state  of  affairs  in  France  —  Treachery  of 
Philip  towards  the  Duke  of  Parma  —  Recall  of  the  duke  to  Spain  —  His 
sufferings  and  death. 

The  People — which  has  been  generally  regarded  as  some¬ 
thing  naturally  below  its  rulers,  and  as  born  to  be  protected 
and  governed,  paternally  or  otherwise,  by  an  accidental  selec¬ 
tion  from  its  own  species,  which  by  some  mysterious  process 
has  shot  up  much  nearer  to  heaven  than  itself — is  often 
described  as  brutal,  depraved,  self-seeking,  ignorant,  pas¬ 
sionate,  licentious,  and  greedy. 

It  is  fitting,  therefore,  that  its  protectors  should  be  distin¬ 
guished,  at  great  epochs  of  the  world's  history,  by  an  absence 
of  such  objectionable  qualities. 

It  must  be  confessed,  however,  that  if  the  world  had  waited 
for  heroes — during  the  dreary  period  which  followed  the  ex¬ 
pulsion  of  something  that  was  called  Henry  III.  of  Franco 
from  the  gates  of  his  capital,  and  especially  during  the  time 
that  followed  hard  upon  the  decease  of  that  embodiment  of 
royalty — its  axis  must  have  ceased  to  turn  for  a  long  succes¬ 
sion  of  years.  The  Bearnese  was  at  least  alive,  and  a  man. 
He  played  his  part  with  consummate  audacity  and  skill ;  but 
alas  for  an  epoch  or  a  country  in  which  such  a  shape — notwith¬ 
standing  all  its  engaging  and  even  commanding  qualities — 
is  looked  upon  as  an  incarnation  of  human  greatness  ! 


186  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXVIII. 

But  the  chief  mover  of  all  things — so  far  as  one  man  can 

be  prime  mover — was  still  the  diligent  scribe  who  lived  in 

the  Escorial.  It  was  he  whose  high  mission  it  was  to  blow 
the  bellows  of  civil  war,  and  to  scatter  curses  over  what  had 
once  been  the  smiling  abodes  of  human  creatures,  throughout 
the  leading  countries  of  Christendom.  The  throne  of  France 
was  vacant,  nominally  as  well  as  actually,  since  the  year 
1589.  During  two-and-twenty  years  preceding  that,  epoch 
he  had  scourged  the  provinces,  once  constituting  the  richest 
and  most  enlightened  portions  of  his  hereditary  domains, 

upon  the  theory  that  without  the  Spanish  Inquisition  no 

material  prosperity  was  possible  on  earth,  nor  any  entrance 
permitted  to  the  realms  of  bliss  beyond  the  grave.  Had 
every  Netherlander  consented  to  burn  his  Bible,  and  to  be 
burned  himself  should  he  be  found  listening  to  its  holy  pre¬ 
cepts  if  read  to  him  in  shop,  cottage,  farm-house,  or  castle  ; 
and  had  he  furthermore  consented  to  renounce  all  the  liberal 
institutions  which  his  ancestors  had  earned,  in  the  struggle 
of  centuries,  by  the  sweat  of  their  brows  and  the  blood  of 
their  hearts  ;  his  benignant  proprietor  and  master,  who  lived 
at  the  ends  of  the  earth,  would  have  consented  at  almost  any 
moment  to  peace.  His  arms  were  ever  open.  Let  it  not  be 
supposed  that  this  is  the  language  of  sarcasm  or  epigram. 
Stripped  of  the  decorous  sophistications  by  which  human 
beings  are  so  fond  of  concealing  their  naked  thoughts  from 
each  other,  this  was  the  one  simple  dogma  always  propounded 
by  Philip.  Grimace  had  done  its  worst,  however,  and  it  was 
long  since  it  had  exercised  any  power  in  the  Netherlands. 
The  king  and  the  Dutchmen  understood  each  other ;  and 
the  plain  truths  with  which  those  republicans  answered  the 
imperial  proffers  of  mediation,  so  frequently  renewed,  were 
something  new,  and  perhaps  not  entirely  unwholesome  in 
diplomacy. 

It  is  not  an  inviting  task  to  abandon  the  comparatively 
healthy  atmosphere  of  the  battle-field,  the  blood-stained  swamp, 
the  murderous  trench — where  human  beings,  even  if  com¬ 
muning  only  by  bullets  and  push  of  pike,  were  at  least 


1593.  HEROISM  OF  THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY.  187 

dealing  truthfully  with  each  other — and  to  descend  into  those 
subterranean  regions  where  the  effluvia  of  falsehood  becomes 
almost  too  foul  for  ordinary  human  organisation. 

Heroes  in  those  days,  in  any  country,  there  were  few. 
William  the  Silent  was  dead.  He  la  None  was  dead.  I) u- 
plessis-Mornay  was  living,  hut  his  influence  over  his  royal 
master  was  rapidly  diminishing.  Cecil,  Hatton,  Essex, 
Howard,  Raleigh,  James  Croft,  Valentine  Hale,  John  Norris, 
Roger  Williams,  the  “  Virgin  Queen”  herself — does  one  of 
these  chief  agents  in  public  affairs,  or  do  all  of  them  together, 
furnish  a  thousandth  part  of  that  heroic  whole  which  the 
England  of  the  sixteenth  century  presents  to  every  imagina¬ 
tion  P  Maurice  of  Nassau — excellent  soldier  and  engineer  as 
he  had  already  proved  himself— had  certainly  not  developed 
much  of  the  heroic  element,  although  thus  far  he  was  walking 
straightforward  like  a  man,  in  the  path  of  duty,  with  the 
pithy  and  substantial  Lewis  William  ever  at  his  side.  Olden- 
Barneveld — tough  burgher-statesman,  hard-headed,  indomi¬ 
table  man  of  granite — was  doing  more  work,  and  doing  it 
more  thoroughly,  than  any  living  politician,  hut  he  was  cer¬ 
tainly  not  of  the  mythological  brotherhood  who  inhabit  the 
serene  regions  of  space  beyond  the  moon.  He  was  not  the 
son  of  god  or  goddess,  destined,  after  removal  from  this 
sphere,  to  shine  with  planetary  lustre,  among  other  constella¬ 
tions,  upon  the  scenes  of  mortal  action.  Those  of  us  who  arc 
willing  to  rise — or  to  descend  if  the  phrase  seems  wiser — to 
the  idea  of  a  self-governing  people  must  content  ourselves, 
for  this  epoch,  with  the  fancy  of  a  liero-people  and  a  people- 
king. 

A  plain  little  republic*  thrusting  itself  uninvited  into  the 
great  political  family-party  of  heaven-anointed  sovereigns  and 
long-descended  nobles,  seemed  a  somewhat  repulsive  pheno¬ 
menon.  It  became  odious  and  dangerous  when  by  the  blows 
it  could  deal  in  battle,  the  logic  it  could  chop  in  council, 
it  indicated  a  remote  future  for  the  world,  in  which  right- 
divine  and  regal  paraphernalia  might  cease  to  be  as  effective 
stage-properties  as  they  had  always  been  considered. 


188 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVIII. 


Yet  it  will  be  difficult  for  us  to  find  the  heroic  individua¬ 
lised  very  perceptibly  at  this  period,  look  where  we  may. 
Already  there  seemed  ground  for  questioning  the  comfortable 
fiction  that  the  accidentally  dominant  families  and  castes 
were  by  nature  wiser,  better,  braver  than  that  much-contemned 
entity,  the  People.  What  if  the  fearful  heresy  should  gain 
ground  that  the  People  was  at  least  as  wise,  honest,  and 
brave  as  its  masters  ?  What  if  it  should  become  a  recognised 
fact  that  the  great  individuals  and  castes,  whose  wealth  and 
station  furnished  them  with  ample  time  and  means  for  per¬ 
fecting  themselves  in  the  science  of  government,  were  rather 
devoting  their  leisure  to  the  systematic  filling  of  their  own 
pockets  than  to  the  hiving  up  of  knowledge  for  the  good  of 
their  fellow  creatures  ?  What  if  the  whole  theory  of  here¬ 
ditary  superiority  should  suddenly  exhale  ?  What  if  it  were 
found  out  that  we  were  all  fellow-worms  together,  and  that 
those  which  had  crawled  highest  were  not  necessarily  the 
least  slimy  ? 

Meantime  it  will  be  well  for  us,  in  order  to  understand  what 
is  called  the  Past,  to  scrutinise  somewhat  closely  that  which 
was  never  meant  to  be  revealed.  To  know  the  springs  which 
once  controlled  the  world's  movements,  one  must  ponder  the 
secret  thoughts,  purposes,  aspirations,  and  baffled  attempts  of 
the  few  dozen  individuals  who  once  claimed  that  world  in 
fee-simple.  Such  researches  are  not  in  a  cheerful  field  ;  for 
the  sources  of  history  are  rarely  fountains  of  crystal,  bubbling 
through  meadows  of  asphodel.  Vast  and  noisome  are  the  many 
sewers  which  have  ever  run  beneath  decorous  Christendom. 

Some  of  the  leading  military  events  in  France  and  Flan¬ 
ders,  patent  to  all  the  world,  which  grouped  themselves 
about  the  contest  for  the  French  throne,  as  the  central  j)oint 
in  the  history  of  Philip's  proposed  world-empire,  have  already 
been  indicated. 

It  was  a  species  of  triangular  contest — so  far  as  the  chief 
actors  were  concerned — for  that  vacant  throne.  Philip, 
Mayenne,  Henry  of  Navarre,  with  all  the  adroitness  which 
each  possessed,  were  playing  for  the  splendid  prize. 


1592.  CONTEST  FOR  THE  THRONE  OF  FRANCE.  189 

Of  Philip  it  is  not  necessary  to  speak.  The  preceding 
volumes  of  this  work  have  been  written  in  vain,  if  the  reader 
has  not  obtained  from  irrefragable  testimony — the  monarch's 
own  especially — a  sufficient  knowledge  of  that  human  fetish 
before  which  so  much  of  contemporary  humanity  grovelled. 

The  figure  of  Navarre  is  also  one  of  the  most  familiar 
shapes  in  history. 

As  for  the  Duke  of  Mayenne,  he  had  been,  since  the  death 
of  his  brother  the  Balafre,  ostensible  leader  of  the  League, 
and  was  playing,  not  without  skill,  a  triple  game. 

Firstly,  he  hoped  for  the  throne  for  himself. 

Secondly,  he  was  assisting  the  King  of  Spain  to  obtain  that 
dignity. 

Thirdly,  he  was  manoeuvring  in  dull,  dumb,  but  not  ineffec¬ 
tive  manner,  in  favour  of  Navarre. 

So  comprehensive  and  self-contradictory  a  scheme  wTould 
seem  to  indicate  an  elasticity  of  principle  arid  a  fertility  of 
resource  not  often  vouchsafed  to  man. 

Certainly  one  of  the  most  pregnant  lessons  of  history  is 
furnished  in  the  development  of  these  cabals,  nor  is  it,  in  this 
regard,  of  great  importance  whether  the  issue  was  to  prove 
them  futile  or  judicious.  It  is  sufficient  for  us  now,  that  when 
those  vanished  days  constituted  the  Present — the  vital  atmo¬ 
sphere  of  Christendom — the  world's  affairs  were  controlled  by 
those  plotters  and  their  subordinates,  and  it  is  therefore  desi¬ 
rable  for  us  to  know  what  manner  of  men  they  were,  and  how 
they  played  their  parts. 

Nor  should  it  ever  be  forgotten  that  the  leading  motive 
with  all  was  supposed  to  be  religion.  It  was  to  maintain  the 
supremacy  of  the  Koman  Church,  or  to  vindicate,  to  a  cer¬ 
tain  extent,  liberty  of  conscience,  through  the  establishment 
of  a  heterodox  organisation,  that  all  these  human  beings  of 
various  lineage  and  language  throughout  Christendom  had 
been  cutting  each  other's  throats  for  a  quarter  of  a  century. 

Mayenne  was  not  without  courage  in  the  field  when  he 
found  himself  there,  but  it  was  observed  of  him  that  he  spent 
more  time  at  table  than  the  Bearnese  in  sleep,  and  that  he 


190 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  NXVIII. 


was  so  fat  as  to  require  the  assistance  of  twelve  men  to  put 
him  in  the  saddle  again  whenever  he  fell  from  his  horse. 
Yet  slow  fighter  as  he  was,  he  was  a  most  nimble  intriguer. 
As  for  his  private  character,  it  was  notoriously  stained  with 
every  vice,  nor  was  there  enough  of  natural  intelligence  or 
superior  acquirement  to  atone  for  his  crapulous,  licentious, 
shameless  life.  His  military  efficiency  at  important  emer¬ 
gencies  was  impaired  and  his  life  endangered  by  vile  diseases. 
He  was  covetous  and  greedy  beyond  what  wTas  considered 
decent  even  in  that  cynical  age.  He  received  subsidies  and 
alms  with  both  hands  from  those  who  distrusted  and  despised 
him,  but  who  could  not  eject  him  from  his  advantageous 
position. 

He  wished  to  arrive  at  the  throne  of  France.  As  son  of 
Francis  of  Guise,  as  brother  of  the  great  Balafre,  he  con¬ 
sidered  himself  entitled  to  the  homage  of  the  fish  women  and 
the  butchers'  halls.  The  constitution  of  the  country  in  that 
age  making  a  People  impossible,  the  subtle  connection  be¬ 
tween  a  high-born  intriguer  and  the  dregs  of  a  populace, 
which  can  only  exist  in  societies  of  deep  chasms  and  preci¬ 
pitous  contrasts,  was  easily  established. 

The  duke's  summary  dealing  with  the  sixteen  tyrants  of 
Paris  in  the  matter  of  the  president's  murder  had,  however, 
loosened  his  hold  on  what  was  considered  the  democracy ; 
but  this  was  at  the  time  when  his  schemes  were  silently 
swinging  towards  the  Protestant  aristocracy )  at  the  moment 
when  Politica  was  taking  the  place  of  Madam  League  in  his 
secret  affections.  Nevertheless,  so  long  as  there  seemed  a 
chance,  he  was  disposed  to  work  the  mines  for  his  own  benefit. 
His  position  as  lieutenant-general  gave  him  an  immense  ad¬ 
vantage  for  intriguing  with  both  sides,  and — in  case  his  aspi¬ 
rations  for  royalty  were  baffled — for  obtaining  the  highest 
possible  price  for  himself  in  that  auction  in  which  Philip  and 
the  Bearnese  were  likely  to  strain  all  their  resources  in  out¬ 
bidding  each  other. 

On  one  thing  his  heart  was  fixed.  His  brother's  son  should 
at  least  not  secure  the  golden  prize  if  he  could  prevent  it.  The 


1592. 


CHARACTER  OP  MAYENNE. 


191 


young  Duke  of  Guise,  who  had  been  immured  in  Castle  Tours 
since  the  famous  murder  of  his  father  and  uncle,  had  made  his 
escape  by  a  rather  neat  stratagem.  Having  been  allowed  some 
liberty  for  amusing  himself  in  the  corridors  in  the  neighbour¬ 
hood  of  his  apartment,  he  had  invented  a  game  of  hop,  skip, 
and  jump  up  stairs  and  down,  which  he  was  wont  to  play  with 
the  soldiers  of  the  guard,  as  a  solace  to  the  tediousness  of  con¬ 
finement.  One  day  he  hopped  and  skipped  up  the  staircase 
with  a  rapidity  which  excited  the  admiration  of  the  com¬ 
panions  of  his  sport,  slipped  into  his  room,  slammed  and 
bolted  the  doors,  and  when  the  guard,  after  in  vain  waiting  a 
considerable  time  for  him  to  return  and  resume  the  game,  at 
last  forced  an  entrance,  they  found  the  bird  flown  out  of 
window.  Rope-ladders,  confederates,  fast-galloping  post- 
horses  did  the  rest,  and  at  last  the  young  duke  joined  his 
affectionate  uncle  in  camp,  much  to  that  eminent  relative’s 
discomfiture.1  Philip  gave  alternately  conflicting  instruc¬ 
tions  to  Farnese — sometimes  that  he  should  encourage 
the  natural  jealousy  between  the  pair  )  sometimes  that  he 
should  cause  them  to  work  harmoniously  together  for  the 
common  good — that  common  good  being  the  attainment  by 
the  King  of  Spain  of  the  sovereignty  of  France. 

But  it  was  impossible,  as  already  intimated,  for  Mayenne 
to  work  harmoniously  with  his  nephew.  The  Duke  of  Guise 
might  marry  with  the  Infanta  and  thus  become  King  of 
Fiance  by  the  grace  of  God  and  Philip.  To  such  a  consum¬ 
mation  in  the  case  of  his  uncle  there  stood,  as  we  know,  an 
insupeiablc  obstacle  in  the  shape  of  the  Duchess  of  Mayenne. 
Should  it  come  to  this  at  last,  it  was  certain  that  the  Duke 
would  make  any  and  every  combination  to  frustrate  such  a 
scheme.  Meantime  he  kept  his  own  counsel,  worked  ami¬ 
cably  with  Philip,  Parma,  and  the  young  duke,  and  received 
money  in  overflowing  measure,  and  poured  into  his  bosom, 
from  that  Spanish  monarch  whose  veterans  in  the  Nether¬ 
lands  were  maddened  by  starvation  into  mutiny. 

Philip’s  plans  were  a  series  of  alternatives.  France  he 

He  Thou,  xi. 


192  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXVIII. 

regarded  as  the  property  of  his  family.  Of  that  there  could 
he  no  doubt  at  all.  He  meant  to  put  the  crown  upon  his 
own  head,  unless  the  difficulties  in  the  way  should  prove 
absolutely  insuperable.  In  that  case  he  claimed  France  and 
all  its  inhabitants  as  the  property  of  his  daughter.  The  Salic 
law  was  simply  a  pleasantry,  a  bit  of  foolish  pedantry,  an  ab¬ 
surdity.  If  Clara  Isabella,  as  daughter  of  Isabella  of  France, 
as  grandchild  of  Henry  II.,  were  not  manifestly  the  owner  of 
France — queen-proprietary,  as  the  Spanish  doctors  called  it 
— then  there  was  no  such  thing,  so  he  thought,  as  inheritance 
of  castle,  farm-house,  or  hovel — no  such  thing  as  property 
anywhere  in  the  world.  If  the  heiress  of  the  Yalois  could 
not  take  that  kingdom  as  her  private  estate,  what  security 
could  there  ever  be  for  any  possessions  public  or  private  ? 

This  was  logical  reasoning  enough  for  kings  and  their 
counsellors.  There  was  much  that  might  be  said,  however, 
in  regard  to  special  laws.  There  was  no  doubt  that  great 
countries,  with  all  their  live-stock — human  or  otherwise — 
belonged  to  an  individual,  but  it  was  not  always  so  clear  who 
that  individual  was.  This  doubt  gave  much  work  and  com¬ 
fortable  fees  to  the  lawyers.  There  was  much  learned  lore  con¬ 
cerning  statutes  of  descent,  cutting  off  of  entails,  actions  for 
ejectment,  difficulties  of  enforcing  processes,  and  the  like,  to 
occupy  the  attention  of  diplomatists,  politicians  and  other  sages. 
It  would  have  caused  general  hilarity,  however,  could  it  have 
been  suggested  that  the  live-stock  had  art  or  part  in  the 
matter  ;  that  sheep,  swine,  or  men  could  claim  a  choice  of 
their  shepherds  and  butchers. 

Philip — humbly  satisfied,  as  he  always  expressed  himself, 
so  long  as  the  purity  of  the  Koman  dogmas  and  the  supre¬ 
macy  of  the  Eomish  Church  over  the  whole  earth  were  main¬ 
tained^ — affected  a  comparative  indifference  as  to  whether  he 
should  put  the  crown  of  St.  Louis  and  of  Hugh  Capet  upon 
his  own  grey  head  or  whether  he  should  govern  France 
through  his  daughter  and  her  husband.  Happy  the  man 
who  might  exchange  the  symbols  of  mutual  affection  with 
Philip’s  daughter. 


1592.  PLANS  FOR  THE  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  INFANTA.  193 

The  king  had  various  plans  in  regard  to  the  bestowal  of 
the  hand  thus  richly  endowed.  First  and  foremost  it  was 
suggested — and  the  idea  was  not  held  too  monstrous  to  be 
even  believed  in  by  some  conspicuous  individuals — that  he 
proposed  espousing  his  daughter  himself.  The  pope  was  to 
be  relied  on,  in  this  case,  to  give  a  special  dispensation. 
Such  a  marriage,  between  parties  too  closely  related  to  be 
usually  united  in  wedlock,  might  otherwise  shock  the  preju¬ 
dices  of  the  orthodox.  His  late  niece  and  wife  was  dead,  so 
that  there  was  no  inconvenience  on  that  score,  should  the 
interests  of  his  dynasty,  his  family,  and,  above  all,  of  the 
Church,  impel  him,  on  mature  reflection,  to  take  for  his  fourth 
marriage  one  step  farther  within  the  forbidden  degrees  than  he 
had  done  in  his  third.  Here  is  the  statement,  which,  if  it  have 
no  othervalue,  serves  to  show  the  hideous  designs  of  which  the 
enemies  of  Philip  sincerely  believed  that  monarch  capable. 

“  But  G-od  is  a  just  God,”  wrote  Sir  Edward  Stafford,  “  and 

if  with  all  things  past,  that  «be  true  that  the  king  ( videlicet 

Henry  IV.)  yesterday  assured  me  to  he  true ,  and  that  both  his 

ambassador  from  Venice  writ  to  him  and  Monsieur  de  Lux- 

* 

embourg  from  Rome,  that  the  Count  Olivarez  had  made  a 
great  instance  to  the  pope  (Sixtus  V.)  a  little  afore  his  death, 
to  permit  his  master  to  marry  his  daughter,  no  doubt  God 
will  not  leave  it  long  unpunished.”2 

Such  was  the  horrible  tale  which  was  circulated  and  believed 
in  by  Henry  the  Great  of  France  and  by  eminent  nobles  and  am¬ 
bassadors,  and  at  least  thought  possible  by  the  English  envoy. 
By  such  a  family  arrangement  it  was  obvious  that  the  con¬ 
flicting  claims  of  father  and  daughter  to  the  proprietorship  of 
France  would  be  ingeniously  adjusted,  and  the  children  of  so 
well  assorted  a  marriage  might  reign  in  undisputed  legitimacy 
over  France  and  Spain,  and  the  rest  of  the  world-monarchy. 
Should  the  king  decide  on  the  whole  against  this  matrimo¬ 
nial  project,  should  Innocent  or  Clement  prove  as  intractable 
as  Sixtus,  then  it  would  be  necessary  to  decide- among  various 
candidates  for  the  Infanta's  hand. 

2  Stafford  to  Burghley,  14  Oct.  1590.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.) 

VOL.  III. — 0 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVIII. 


194 


In  Mayenne’s  opinion  the  Duke  of  Guise  was  likely  to  be 
the  man  ;  but  there  is  little  doubt  that  Philip,  in  case  these 
more  cherished  schemes  should  fail,  had  made  up  his  mind — 
so  far  as  he  ever  did  make  up  his  mind  upon  anything — to 
select  his  nephew  the  Archduke  Ernest,  brother  of  the 
Emperor  Rudolph,  for  his  son-in-law.  But  it  was  not  neces¬ 
sary  to  make  an  immediate  choice.  His  quiver  was  full  of 
archdukes,  any  one  of  whom  would  be  an  eligible  candidate, 
while  not  one  of  them  would  be  likely  to  reject  the  Infanta 
with  France  on  her  wedding-finger.  Meantime  there  was  a 
lion  in  the  path  in  the  shape  of  Henry  of  Navarre. 

Those  who  disbelieve  in  the  influence  of  the  individual  on 
the  fate  of  mankind  may  ponder  the  possible  results  to  his¬ 
tory  and  humanity,  had  the  dagger  of  Jacques  Clement 
entered  the  stomach  of  Henry  IV.  rather  than  of  Henry 
III.  in  the  summer  of  1589,  or  the  perturbations  in  the 
world’s  movements  that  might  have  puzzled  philosophers 
had  there  been  an  unsuspected*  mass  of  religious  conviction 
revolving  unseen  in  the  mental  depths  of  the  Bearnese. 
Conscience,  as  it  has  from  time  to  time  exhibited  itself  on 
this  planet  of  ours,  is  a  powerful  agent  in  controlling  poli¬ 
tical  combinations  ;  but  the  instances  are  unfortunately  not 
rare,  so  far  as  sublunary  progress  is  concerned,  in  which 
the  absence  of  this  dominant  influence  permits  a  prosperous 
rapidity  to  individual  careers.  Eternal  honour  to  the  noble 
beings,  true  chieftains  among  men,  who  have  forfeited  worldly 
power  or  sacrificed  life  itself  at  the  dictate  of  religious  or  moral 
conviction — even  should  the  basis  of  such  conviction  appear 
to  some  of  us  unsafe  or  unreal.  Shame  on  the  tongue  which 
would  malign  or  ridicule  the  martyr  or  the  honest  convert  to 
any  form  of  Christian  faith  !  But  who  can  discover  aught 
that  is  inspiring  to  the  sons  of  men  in  conversions — whether 
of  princes  or  of  peasants — wrought,  not  at  risk  of  life  and 
pelf,  but  for  the  sake  of  securing  and  increasing  the  one  and 
the  other  P 

Certainly  the  Bearnese  was  the  most  candid  of  men.  It 
was  this  very  candour,  this  freedom  from  bigotry,  this  want 


s 


1592. 


INTIMIDATION  OF  THE  POPE. 


195 


of  conviction,  and  this  openness  to  conviction,  that  made  him 
so  dangerous  and  caused  so  much  anxiety  to  Philip.  The 
Boman  Church  might  or  might  not  he  strengthened  by  the 
re-conversion  of  the  legitimate  heir  of  France,  hut  it  was 
certain  that  the  claims  of  Philip  and  the  Infanta  to  the 
proprietorship  of  that  kingdom  would  he  weakened  by  the 
process.  While  the  Spanish  king  knew  himself  to  he  inspired 
in  all  his  actions  by  a  single  motive,  the  maintenance  of  the 
supremacy  of  the  Boman  Church,  he  was  perfectly  aware  that 
the  Prince  of  Bearne  was  not  so  single-hearted  nor  so  conscien¬ 
tious  as  himself. 

The  Prince  of  Bearne — heretic,  son  of  heretics,  great  chief¬ 
tain  of  heretics — was  supposed  capable  of  becoming  orthodox 
whenever  the  Pope  would  accept  his  conversion.  Against 
this  possibility  Philip  struggled  with  all  his  strength.  • 

Since  Pope  Sixtus  V.,  who  had  a  weakness  for  Henry, 
there  had  been  several  popes.  Urban  VII.,  his  immediate 
successor,  had  reigned  but  thirteen  days.  Gregory  XIV. 
(Sfondrato)  had  died  15th  October,  1591,  ten  months  after 
his  election.  Fachinetti,  with  the  title  of  Innocent  IX.,  had 
reigned  two  months,  from  29th  October  to  29th  December, 
1591.  He  died  of  “  Spanish  poison/'  said  Envoy  Umton, 
as  coolly  as  if  speaking  of  gout,  or  typhus,  or  any  other 
recognised  disorder.  Clement  VIII.  (Aldobranclini)  was 
elected  30th  January,  1592.  He  was  no  lover  of  Henry, 
and  lived  in  mortal  fear  of  Philip,  while  it  must  be  con¬ 
ceded  that  the  Spanish  ambassador  at  Borne  was  much 
given  to  brow-beating  his  Holiness.  Should  he  dare  to  grant 
that  absolution  which  was  the  secret  object  of  the  Bearnese, 
there  was  no  vengeance,  hinted  the  envoy,  that  Philip  would 
not  wreak  on  the  holy  father.  He  would  cut  off  his  supplies 
from  Xaples  and  Sicily,  and  starve  him  and  all  his  subjects  ; 
lie  would  frustrate  all  his  family  schemes,  he  would  renounce 
him,  he  would  unpope  him,  he  would  do  anything  that  man 
and  despot  could  do,  should  the  great  shepherd  dare  to 
re-admit  this  lost  sheep,  and  this  very  black  sheep,  into  the 
fold  of  the  faithful. 


196  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXYIII. 

As  for  Henry  himself,  his  game — for  in  his  eyes  it  was 
nothing  hut  a  game — lay  every  clay  plainer  and  plainer 
before  him.  He  was  indispensable  to  the  heretics.  Neither 
England,  nor  Holland,  nor  Protestant  Germany,  could  re¬ 
nounce  him,  even  should  he  renounce  “  the  religion/'  Nor 
could  the  French  Huguenots  exist  without  that  protection 
which,  even  although  Catholic,  he  could  still  extend  to  them 
when  he  should  be  accepted  as  king  by  the  Catholics. 

Hereditary  monarch  by  French  law  and  history,  released 
from  his  heresy  by  the  authority  that  could  bind  and  loose, 
purged  as  with  hyssop  and  washed  whiter  than  snow,  it 
should  go  hard  with  him  if  Philip,  and  Farnese,  and  Mayenne, 
and  all  the  pikemen  and  reiters  they  might  muster,  could 
keep  him  very  long  from  the  throne  of  his  ancestors. 

Nothing  could  match  the  ingenuousness  with  which  he 
demanded  the  instruction  whenever  the  fitting  time  for  it 
should  arrive  ;  as  if,  instead  of  having  been  a  professor  both 
of  the  Calvinist  and  Catholic  persuasion,  and  having  relapsed 
from  both,  he  had  been  some  innocent  Peruvian  or  Hindoo, 
who  was  invited  to  listen  to  preachings  and  to  examine 
dogmas  for  the  very  first  time  in  his  life. 

Yet  Philip  had  good  grounds  for  hoping  a  favourable 
result  from  his  political  and  military  manoeuvre.  He  enter¬ 
tained  liltle  doubt  that  France  belonged  to  him  or  to  his 
daughter  ;  that  the  most  powerful  party  in  % the  country  was 
in  favour  of  his  claims,  provided  he  would  pay  the  voters 
liberally  enough  for  their  support,  and  that  if  the  worst  came 
to  the  worst  it  would  always  be  in  his  power  to  dismember 
the  kingdom,  and  to  reserve  the  lion's  share  for  himself, 
while  distributing  some  of  the  provinces  to  the  most  promi¬ 
nent  of  his  confederates. 

The  sixteen  tyrants  of  Paris  had  already,  as  we  have  seen, 
urged  the  crown  upon  *  him,  provided  he  would  establish  in 
France  the  Inquisition,  the  council  of  Trent,  and  other 
acceptable  institutions,  besides  distributing  judiciously  a 
good  many  lucrative  offices  among  various  classes  of  his 
adherents. 


1592.  PLOTTING  OF  THE  CATHOLIC  PARTY.  197 

The  Duke  of  Mayenne,  in  his  own  name  and  that  of  all 
the  Catholics  of  France,  formally  demanded  of  him  to  main¬ 
tain  two  armies,  forty  thousand  men  in  all,  to  be  respectively 
under  command  of  the  duke  himself  and  of  Alexander 
Farnese,  and  regularly  to  pay  for  them.  These  propositions, 
as  has  been  seen,  were  carried  into  effect  as  nearly  as  pos¬ 
sible,  at  enormous  expense  to  Philip's  exchequer,  and  he 
naturally  expected  as  good  faith  on  the  part  of  Mayenne. 

In  the  same  paper  in  which  the  demand  was  made  Philip 
was  urged  to  declare  himself  king  of  France.  He  was  assured 
that  the  measure  could  be  accomplished  “  by  freely  bestowing 
marquisates,  baronies,  and  peerages,  in  order  to  content  the 
avarice  and  ambition  of  many  persons,  without  at  the  same 
time  dissipating  the  greatness  from  which  all  these  members 
depended.  Pepin  and  Charlemagne,"  said  the  memorialists, 
“  who  were  foreigners  and  Saxons  by  nation,  did  as  much  in 
order  to  •  get  possession  of  a  kingdom  to  which  they  had  no 
other  right  except  that  which  they  acquired  there  by  their 
prudence  and  force,  and  after  them  Hugh  Capet,  much 
inferior  to  them  in  force  and  authority,  following  their 
example,  had  the  same  good  fortune  for  himself  and  his 
posterity,  and  one  which  still  endures. 

“  If  the  authority  of  the  holy  see  could  support  the  scheme 
at  the  same  time,"  continued  Mayenne  and  friends,  “  it  would 
be  a  great  help.  But  it  being  perilous  to  ask  for  that  assist¬ 
ance  before  striking  the  blow,  it  would  be  better  to  obtain  it 
after  the  execution."3 

That  these  wholesome  opinions  were  not  entirely  original 
on  the  part  of  Mayenne,  nor  produced  spontaneously,  was 
plain  from  the  secret  instructions  given  by  Philip  to  his 
envoys,  Don  Bernardino  de  Mendoza,  John  Baptist  de  Tassis, 
and  the  commander  Moreo,  whom  he  had  sent  soon  after  the 
death  of  Henry  III.  to  confer  with  Cardinal  Gaetano  in 
Paris. 

They  were  told,  of  course,  to  do  everything  in  their  power 
to  prevent  the  election  of  the  Prince  of  Bearne,  “  being  as 

3  Arch,  de  Simancas  (Paris),  A  57,  — .  MS. 


198 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVIII. 


he  was  a  heretic,  obstinate  and  confirmed,  who  had  sucked 
heresy  with  his  mother’s  milk.”  The  legate  was  warned  that 
u  if  tlie  Bearnese  should  make  a  show  of  converting  himself 
it  would  be  frigid  and  fabricated.”4  * 

If  they  were  asked  whom  Philip  desired  for  king— a 
question  which  certainly  seemed  probable  under  the  circum¬ 
stances— they  were  to  reply  that  his  foremost  wish  was  to 
e  Catholic  1  elision  in  the  kingdom,  and  that 
whatever  was  most  conducive  to  that  end  would  he  most 
agreeable  to  him.  “  As  it  is  however  desirable,  in  order  to 
arrange  matters,  that  you  should  he  informed  of  everything,” 
said  his  Majesty,  u  it  is  proper  that  you  should  know  that  I 
have  two  kinds  of  right  to  all  that  there  is  over  there. 
Fiistly,  because  the  crown  of  France  has  been  usurped  from 
me,  my  ancestors  having  been  unjustly  excluded  by  foreign 
occupation  ot  it ;  and  secondly,  because  I  claim  the  same 
crown  as  first  male  of  the  house  of  Yalois.”5 

Here  certainly  were  comprehensive  pretensions,  and  it 
vas  obvious  that  the  king’s  desire  for  the  establishment  of 
the  Catholic  religion  must  have  been  very  lively  to  enable 
him  to  invent  or  accept  such  astonishing  fictions. 

But  his  own  claims  were  hut  a  portion  of  the  case.  His 
daughter  and  possible  spouse  had  rights  of  her  own,  hard,  in 
his  opinion,  to  he  gainsaid.  “  Over  and  above  all  this,”  said 
Philip,  “my  eldest  daughter,  the  Infanta,  has  two  other 
rights;  one  to  all  the  states  which % as  dower-property  are 
joined  by  matrimony  and  through  females  to  this  crown, 
which  now  come  to  her  in  direct  line,  and  the  other  to  the 
crown  itself,  which  belongs  directly  to  the  said  Infanta,  the 
matter  of  the  Salic  law  being  a  mere  invention.”6 

Thus  it  would  appear  that  Philip  was  the  legitimate 
representative,  not  only  of  the  ancient  races  of  French 

4  Instruction  que  se  dio  a  Don  B.  de 
Mendoza,  J.  B.  de  Tassis,  y  el  Com. 

Moreo,  anno  1589.  (Arcli.  de  Simancas 
MS.) 

6  “  Es  buen  que  sepays  que  yo  tengo 
dos  maneras  de  derecho  a  lo  de  ay  • 
por  una  parte  a  lo  que  me  tiene  usur- 


pado  essa  corona  aviendo  lo  ocupado 
injustamente  a  mios  pasados,  y  por 
otra  a  la  misma  corona  como  Varon 
mayor  de  dias  de  la  casa  Valesia — v 
que  de  mas  desto  tiene  otros  dos  dere- 
clios  la  Infanta  mi  liija  mayor,5’  &c 
6  Ibid. 


1592. 


CLAIMS  OF  PHILIP  TO  THE  CROWN  OF  FRANCE.  199 


monarchs — whether  Merovingians,  Carlovingians,  or  otherwise 
was  not  stated — hut  also  of  the  usurping  houses  themselves, 
by  whose  intrusion  those  earliei;  dynasties  had  been  ejected, 
being  the  eldest  male  heir  of  the  extinct  line  of  Yalois,  while 
his  daughter  was,  if  possible,  even  more  legitimately  the 
sovereign  and  proprietor  of  France  than  he  was  himself. 

Nevertheless  in  his  magnanimous  desire  for  the  peace  of 
the  world  and  the  advancement  of  the  interests  of  the  Church, 
he  was,  if  reduced  to  extremities,  willing  to  forego  his  own 
individual  rights — when  it  should  appear  that  they  could  by 
no  possibility  be  enforced — in  favour  of  his  daughter  and  of 
the  husband  whom  he  should  select  for  her. 

ee  Thus  it  may  be  seen/'  said  the  self-denying  man,  u  that  I 
know  how,  for  the  sake  of  the  public  repose,  to  strip  myself  of 
my  private  property."  7 

Afterwards,  when  secretly  instructing  the.  Duke  of  Feria, 
about  to  proceed  to  Paris  for  the  sake  of  settling  the 
sovereignty  of  the  kingdom,  he  reviewed  the  whole  subject, 
setting  forth  substantially  the  same  intentions.  That  the 
Prince  of  Bearne  could  ever  possibly  succeed  to  the  throne 
of  his  ancestors  was  an  idea  to  be  treated  only  with  sublime 
scorn  by  all  right-minded  and  sensible  men.  “  The  members 
of  the  House  of  Bourbon,"  said  he,  “  pretend  that  by  right  of 
blood  the  crown  belongs  to  them,  and  hence  is  derived  the 
pretension  made  by  the  Prince  of  Bearne  ;  but  if  there  were 
wanting  other  very  sufficient  causes  to  prevent  this  claim — 
which  however  are  not  wanting — it  is  quite  enough  that  he  is 
a  relapsed  heretic,  declared  to  be  such  by  the  Apostolic  See, 
and  pronounced  incompetent,  as  well  as  the  other  members 
of  his  house,  all  of  them,  to  say  the  least,  encouragers  of 
heresy  ;  so  that  not  one  of  them  can  ever  be  king  of  France, 
where  there  have  been  such  religious  princes  in  time  past, 


7  “  Tras  esto,  como  yo  tiro  el  suave 
reparo  desse  reyno  mas  que  a  inte- 
resses  proprios  facilmente  me  absterria 
de  las  pretenciones  que  me  tocan,  con 
saber  que  son  muy  bien  fundadas  si 
viesse  abrirse  puerta  a  que  consi- 
guiendo  las  suyas  la  Infanta  y  por  via 


de  casamiento  que  estuviesse  bien  a 
todos — que  menos  sombras  y  qelos 
causaria  los  invidiosos  de  fuera — assi 
para  que  se  vea  que  sabe  por  el  sos- 
siego  publico  desnudarme  de  mi  par¬ 
ticular.”  (MS.  last  cited.) 


200  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXVIII 

who  have  justly  merited  the  name  of  Most  Christian  ;  and  so 
there  is  no  possibility  of  permitting  him  or  any  of  his  house 
to  aspire  to  the  throne,  or  to  have  the  subject  even  treated  of 
in  the  estates.  It  should  on  the  contrary  he  entirely  excluded 
as  prejudicial  to  the  realm  and  unworthy  to  be  even  mentioned 
among  persons  so  Catholic  as  those  about  to  meet  in  that 
assembly/' 8 

The  claims  of  the  man  whom  his  supporters  already  called 
Henry  the  Fourth  of  France  being  thus  disposed  of,  Philip 
then  again  alluded  with  his  usual  minuteness  to  the  various 
combinations  which  he  had  formed  for  the  tranquillity  and 
good  government  of  that  kingdom  and  of  the  other  provinces 
of  his  world-empire. 

It  must  moreover  be  never  forgotten  that  what  he  said 
passed  with  his  contemporaries  almost  for  oracular  dispensa¬ 
tions.  What  he  did  or  ordered  to  be  done  was  like  the 
achievements  or  behests  of  a  superhuman  being.  Time,  as  it 
rolls  by,  leaves  the  wrecks  of  many  a  stranded  reputation  to 
bleach  in  the  sunshine  of  after-ages.  It  is  sometimes  as  pro¬ 
fitable  to  learn  what  was  not  done  by  the  great  ones  of  the 
earth,  in  spite  of  all  their  efforts,  as  to  ponder  those  actual 
deeds  which  are  patent  to  mankind.  The  Past  was  once 
the  Present,  and  once  the  Future,  bright  with  rainbows  or 
black  with  impending  storm ;  for  histpry  is  a  continuous 
whole  of  which  we  see  only  fragments. 

He  who  at  the  epoch  with  which  we  are  now  occupied  was 
deemed  greatest  and  wisest  among  the  sons  of  earth,  at  whose 
threats  men  quailed,  at  whose  vast  and  intricate  schemes  men 
gasped  in  pale-faced  awe,  has  left  behind  him  the  record  of  his 
interior  being.  Let  us  consider  whether  he  was  so  potent  as 
his  fellow  mortals  believed,  or  whether  his  greatness  was 
merely  their  littleness  ;  whether  it  was  carved  out  of  the 
inexhaustible  but  artificial  quarry  of  human  degradation. 
Let  us  see  whether  the  execution  was  consonant  with  the 
inordinate  plotting  ;  whether  the  price  in  money  and  blood— 

8  Instruction  general  para  el  Duque  de  Feria,  Madrid,  2  Enero,  1592  A 
57,—,  MS. 


1592. 


BRITTANY  ASSIGNED  TO  THE  INFANTA. 


201 


and  certainly  few  human  beings  have  squandered  so  much  of 
either  as  did  Philip  the  Prudent  in  his  long  career — was  high 
or  low  for  the  work  achieved. 

Were  after  generations  to  learn,  only  after  curious  research, 
of  a  pretender  who  once  called  himself,  to  the  amusement  of 
his  contemporaries,  Henry  the  Fourth  of  France  ;  or  was 
the  world-empire  for  which  so  many  armies  were  marshalled, 
so  many  ducats  expended,  so  many  falsehoods  told,  to  prove  a 
bubble  after  all  ?  Time  was  to  show.  Meantime  wise  men 
x)f  the  day  who,  like  the  sages  of  every  generation,  read 
the  future  like  a  printed  scroll,  were  pitying  the  delusion  and 
rebuking  the  wickedness  of  Henry  the  Bearnese  ;  persist¬ 
ing  as  he  did  in  his  cruel,  sanguinary,  hopeless  attempt  to 
establish  a  vanished  and  impossible  authority  over  a  land  dis¬ 
tracted  by  civil  war. 

Nothing  could  he  calmer  or  more  reasonable  than  the 
language  of  the  great  champion  of  the  Inquisition. 

“And  as  President  Jeannin  informs  me,”  he  said,  “that  the 
Catholics  have  the  intention  of  electing  me  king,  that  appear¬ 
ing  to  them  the  gentlest  and  safest  method  to  smooth  all 
rivalries  likely  to  arise  among  the  princes  aspiring  to  the 
crown,  I  reply,  as  you  will  see  by  the  copy  herewith  sent. 
You  will  observe  that  after  not  refusing  myself  to  that  which 
may  he  the  will  of  our  Lord,  should  there  he  no  other  mode 
of  serving  Him,  above  all  I  desire  that  which  concerns  my 
daughter,  since  to  her  belongs  the  kingdom.  I  desire  nothing 
else  nor  anything  for  myself,  nor  for  anybody  else,  except  as 
a  means  for  her  to  arrive  at  her  right.”  9 

He  had  taken  particular  pains  to  secure  his  daughter's 
right  in  Brittany,  while  the  Duchess  of  Mercoeur,  by  the 

9“Y  por  que  dixo  que  avia  voluntad 
en  los  CatoLicos  de  nombrarme  a  mi 
por  su  rey,  pareciendoles  esto  mas 
suave  y  seguro  para  allanar  las  com- 
petencias  que  puede  aver  entre  los 
mismos  principes  que  aspirau  a  estos, 
se  le  respondio  lo  que  vereys  per  la 
copia  que  con  esta  se  embia  por  donde 
entendereys  que  tras  no  negarme  a  lo 
que  fuessa  voluntad  de  nro  Seiior 


quando  no  huviesse  otro  medio  para 
su  servicio,  lo  que  sobre  todo  desseo  es 
lo  que  toca  a  mi  liija,  pues  a  el-la 
venga  el  reyno ;  yo  no  quiero  otra 
cosa  ni  nada  para  mi  ni  para  otro,  sino 
es  por  torgedor  y  medio  para  que  ella 
consiga  su  derecho.”  Instruccion  Ge¬ 
neral  para  el  Duque  de  Feria,  &c. 
(MS.  before  cited.) 


202 


TIIE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVIII. 


secret  orders  of  her  husband,  had  sent  a  certain  ecclesiastic 
to  Spain  to  make  over  the  sovereignty  of  this  province  to 
the  Infanta.  Philip  directed  that  the  utmost  secrecy  should 
be  observed  in  regard  to  this  transaction  with  the  duke  and 
duchess,  and  promised  the  duke,  as  his  reward  for  these  pro¬ 
posed  services  in  dismembering  his  country,  the  government 
of  the  province  for  himself  and  his  heirs.10 

For  the  king  was  quite  determined — in  case  his  efforts  to 
obtain  the  crown  for  himself  or  for  his  daughter  were  un¬ 
successful — to  dismember  France,  with  the  assistance  of  those 
eminent  Frenchmen  who  were  now  so  industriously  aiding 
him  in  his  projects. 

“  And  in  the  third  place;”  said  he,  in  his  secret  instructions 
to  Feria,  “  if  for  the  sins  of  all,  we  don't  manage  to  make  any 
election,  and  if  therefore  the  kingdom  (of  France)  has  to 
come  to  separation  and  to  he  divided  into  many  hands  ;  in 
this  case  we  must  propose  to  the  Duke  of  Mayenne  to 
assist  him  in  getting  possession  of  Normandy  for  himself, 
and  as  to  the  rest  of  the  kingdom,  I  shall  take  for  myself 
that  which  seems  good  to  me — all  of  us  assisting  each 
other.”  11 


But  unfortunately  it  was  difficult  for  any  of  these  fellow- 
labourers  to  assist  each  other  very  thoroughly,  while  they 
detested  each  other  so  cordially  and  suspected  each  other  with 
such  good  reason. 

Moreo,  Ybarra,  Feria,  Parma,  all  assured  their  master 
that  Mayenne  was  taking  Spanish  money  as  fast  as  he 
could  get  it,  hut  with  the  sole  purpose  of  making  himself 
king.  As  to  any  of  the  House  of  Lorraine  obtaining  the  hand 
of  the  Infanta  and  the  throne  with  it,  Feria  assured  Philip 


10  Instruction  secreta  para  Don 
Mendo  de  la  Desma,  2  March,  1591. 

(Arch,  de  Simancas,  A  57,  — ,  MS.) 

11  “  El  tercero  si  por  pecados  de 
todos  no  se  acertasse  a  liazer  election 
ninguna,  y  assi  liuviesse  de  venir  a 
quel  reyno  en  disipacion,  y  diviclirse 
en  muchos  manos,  y  en  este  caso  se 
ofrecio  al  Duque  de  Umena  de  asistir- 
le  para  que  se  apodere  de  Normandia 


para  si,  y  que  de  lo  demas  tome  yo 
para  mi  lo  que  me  pareciere,  ayudando 
nos  bien  uno  a  otro.” 

Instruction  secreta  lo  que  vos  Don 
Lorenzo  Suarez  de  Figueroa,  Duque 
de  Feria,  mi  primo  aveys  de  llevar 
entendido  de  mas  que  contiene  la  in¬ 
struction  general  que  llevays.  2  Enero, 
1592.  Arch,  de  Simancas  (Paris)  MS. 


1592. 


CALUMNIES  AGAINST  THE  DUKE  OF  PARMA. 


203 


that  Mayenne  “  would  sooner  give  the  crown  to  the  Grand 
Turk/' 12 

Nevertheless  Philip  thought  it  necessary  to  continue 
making  use  of  the  duke.  Both  were  indefatigable  therefore  in 
expressing  feelings  of  boundless  confidence  each  in  the  other. 

It  has  been  seen  too  how  entirely  the  king  relied  on  the 
genius  and  devotion  of  Alexander  Farnese  to  carry  out  his 
*  great  schemes  ;  and  certainly  never  had  monarch  a  more 
faithful,  unscrupulous,  and  dexterous  servant.  Remonstrating, 
advising,  hut  still  obeying — entirely  without  conscience, 
unless  it  were  conscience  to  carry  out  his  master's  commands, 
even  when  most  puerile  or  most  diabolical — he  was  neverthe¬ 
less  the  object  of  Philip’s  constant  suspicion,  and  felt  himself 
placed  under  perpetual  though  secret  supervision. 

Commander  Moreo  was  unwearied  in  blackening  the  duke's 
character,  and  in  maligning  his  every  motive  and  action,  and 
greedily  did  the  king  incline  his  ear  to  the  calumnies  steadily 
instilled  by  the  chivalrous  spy.  , 

“  He  has  caused  all  the  evil  we  are  suffering,"  said  Moreo. 
“  When  he  sent  Egmont  to  France  'twas  without  infantry, 
although  Egmont  begged  hard  for  it,  as  did  likewise  the 
Legate,  Eon  Bernardino,  and  Tassis.  Had  he  done  this  there 
is  no  doubt  at  all  that  the  Catholic  cause  in  France  would 
have  been  safe,  and  your  Majesty  would  now  have  the  control 
over  that  kingdom  which  you  desire.  This  is  the  opinion  of 
friends  and  foes.  I  went  to  the  Duke  of  Parma  and  made 

it 

free  to  tell  him  that  the  whole  world  would  blame  him  for 
the  damage  done  to  Christianity,  since  your  Majesty  had 
exonerated  yourself  by  ordering  him  to  go  to  the  assistance 
of  the  French  Catholics  with  all  the  zeal  possible.  Upon  this 
he  was  so  disgusted  that  he  has  never  shown  me  a  civil  face 
since.  I  doubt  whether  he  will  send  or  go  to  France  at  all, 
and  although  the  Duke  of  Mayenne  despatches  couriers  every 
day  with  protestations  and  words  that  would  soften  rocks, 
I  see  no  indications  of  a  movement."  1:3 

12  Duke  of  Feria  to  Philip.  Arcli.  de  Simancas  (Paris),  B.  75,  2G  to  30, 
cited  by  Capefigue,  vi.  259. 

13  Moreo  to  Philip,  22  June,  1590.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 


204 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


.  Chap.  XXVIII. 


Thus,  while  the  duke  was  making  great  military  pre¬ 
parations  for  invading  France  without  means  )  pawning  his 
own  property  to  get  bread  for  his  starving  veterans,  and 
hanging  those  veterans  whom  starving  had  made  mutinous, 
he  was  depicted,  to  the  most  suspicious  and  unforgiving 
mortal  that  ever,  wore  a  crown,  as  a  traitor  and  a  rebel, 
and  this  while  he  was  renouncing  his  own  judicious  and 
well-considered  policy  in  obedience  to  the  wild  schemes  of 
his  master. 

“I  must  make  bold  to  remind  your  Majesty,”  again 
whispered  the  spy,  “  that  there  never  was  an  Italian  prince 
who  failed  to  pursue  his  own  ends,  and  that  there  are  few 
in  the  world  that  are  not  wishing  to  become  greater  than 
they  are.  This  man  here  could  strike  a  greater  blow 
than  all  the  rest  of  them  put  together.  Remember  that 
there  is  not  a  villain  anywhere  that  does  not  desire  the  death 
of  your  Majesty.  Believe  me,  and  send  to  cut  off  my  head  if 
it  shall  be  found  that  I  am  speaking  from  passion,  or  from 
other  motive  than  pure  zeal  for  your  royal  service.”  14 

The  reader  will  remember  into  what  a  paroxysm  of  rage 
Alexander  was  thrown  on  a  former  occasion,  when  secretly 
invited  to  listen  to  propositions  by  which  the  sovereignty 
over  the  Netherlands  was  to  be  secured  to  himself,  and  how 
near  he  was  to  inflicting  mortal  punishment  with  his  own  hand 
on  the  man  who  had  ventured  to  broach  that  treasonable 
matter.15 

Such  projects  and  propositions  were  ever  floating,  as  it 
were,  in  the  atmosphere,  and  it  was  impossible  for  the  most 
just  men  to  escape  suspicion  in  the  mind  of  a  king  who  fed 
upon  suspicion  as  his  daily  bread.  Yet  nothing  could  be 
fouler  or  falser  than  the  calumny  which  described  Alexander 
as  unfaithful  to  Philip.  Had  he  served  his  God  as  he  served 


14  Moreo  to  Philip,  22  June,  1590. 
“Me  atrevere  a  decir  que  se  acuerde 
V.  M.  que  no  hay  principe  in  Italia 
qui  deje  de  tener  sus  fines,  y  que  hay 
pocos  en  el  mundo  qui  no  tengun 
puesta  la  mira  a  ser  mas — y  el  de 
aqui  podria  si  quiere  dar  mayor 


golpe  que  todos  los  demas — y  que  no 
hay  hombre-  malo  qui  no  dessee  la 
niuerte  de  V.  Md.  Crealo  y  mandame 
cortar  la  cabeza  si  hallare  que  digo 
por  pasion  ni  otro  que  <?elo  limpio  del 
servicio  de  V.  Md.” 

15  See  Vol.  II.  of  this  work,  p.  539. 


CALUMNIES  AGAINST  THE  DUKE  OF  PARMA. 


1592. 


205 


his  master  perhaps  his  record  before  the  highest  tribunal 
would  have  been  a  clearer  one. 

And  in  the  same  vein  in  which  he  wrote  to  the  monarch 
in  person  did  the  crafty  Moreo  write  to  the  principal  secretary 
of  state,  Idiaquez,  whose  mind,  as  well  as  his  master's,  it  was 
useful  to  poison,  and  who  was  in  daily  communication  with 
Philip. 

.  “  Let  us  make  sure  of  Flanders,"  said  he,  u  otherwise  we 
shall  all  of  us  be  well  cheated.  I  will  tell  you  something  of 
that  which  I  have  already  told  his  Majesty,  only  not  all, 
referring  you  to  Tassis,  who-,  as  a  personal  witness  to  many 
things,  will  have  it  in  his  power  to  undeceive  his  Majesty. 
I  have  seen  very  clearly  that  the  duke  is  disgusted  with  his 
Majesty,  and  one  day  he  told  me  that  he  cared  not  if  the 
whole  world  went  to  destruction,  only  not  Flanders.16 

“  Another  day  he  told  me  that  there  was  a  report  abroad 
that  his  Majesty  was  sending  to  arrest  him,  by  means  of  the 
Duke  of  Pastrana,  and  looking  at  me  he  said :  c  See  here, 
seignior  commander,  no  threats,  as  if  it  were  in  the  power  of 
mortal  man  to  arrest  me,  much  less  of  such  fellows  as  these.'17 

u  But  this  is  but  a  small  part  of  what  I  could  say,"  con¬ 
tinued  the  detective  knight-commander,  “  for  I  don’t  like  to 
trust  these  ciphers.  But  be  certain  that  nobody  in  Flanders 
wishes  well  to  these  estates  or  to  the  Catholic  cause,  and  the 
associates  of  the  Duke  of  Parma  go  about  saying  that  it  does 
not  suit  the  Italian  potentates  to  have  his  Majesty  as  great  a 
monarch  as  he  is  trying  to  be."18 

This  is  but  a  sample  of  the  dangerous  stuff  with  which  the 
royal  mind  was  steadily  drugged,  day  after  day,  by  those  to 
whom  Farnese  was  especially  enjoined  to  give  his  confidence. 
Later  on  it  will  be  seen  how  much  effect  was  thus  produced 
both  upon  the  king  and  upon  the  duke.  Moreo,  Mendoza, 
and  Tassis  were  placed  about  the  governor-general,  nominally 
,  as  his  counsellors,  in  reality  as  .police-officers. 


16  Moreo  to  Don  I.  de  Idiaquez,  80 
Jan.  1590.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 

17  Ibid.  “Y  viendome  dixo,  mire 
Senor  Comd0r  que  calle  de  amenazas, 


como  si  fuese  en  poder  de  liombre 
liumano  que  me  pudiese  prender, 
quanto  mas  semejante  gente &c. 

16  Ibid. 


206 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVIII. 


“You  are  to  confer  regularly  with  Mendoza,  Tassis,  and 
Moreo,”  said  Philip  to  Farnese.19 

“  You  are  to  assist,  correspond,  and  harmonize  in  every 
way  with  the  Duke  of  Parma,”  wrote  Philip  to  Mendoza, 
Tassis,  and  Moreo.20  And  thus  cordially  and  harmoniously 
were  the  trio  assisting  and  con'esponding  with  the  duke. 

But  Moreo  Avas  right  in  not  Avishing  to  trust  the  ciphers, 
and  indeed  he  had  trusted  them  too  much,  for  Farnese  was 
very  Avell  aAvare  of  his  intrigues,  and  complained  bitterly  of 
them  to  the  king  and  to  Idiaquez. 

Most  eloquently  and  indignantly  did  he  complaiq  of  the 
calumnies,  ever  renewing  themselves,  of  Avhich  he  was  the 
subject.  a'Tis  this  good  Moreo  Avho  is  the  author  of  the  last 
falsehoods,”  said  he  to  the  secretary  ;  “  and  this  is  but  poor 
payment  for  my  having  neglected  my  family,  my  parents  and 
children  for  so  many  years  in  the  king's  service,  and  put  my 
life  ever  on  the  hazard,  that  these  fellows  should  be  allowed  to 
revile  me  and  make  game  of  me  now,  instead  of  assisting  me.”21 

He  was  at  that  time,  after  almost  superhuman  exertions, 
engaged  in  the  famous  relief  of  Paris.  He  had  gone  there,  he 
said,  against  his  judgment  and  remonstrating  with  his  Majesty 
on  the  insufficiency  of  men  and  money  for  such  an  enterjwise. 
His  army  was  half-mutinous  and  unprovided  with  food,  artil¬ 
lery,  or  munitions;  and  then  he  found  himself  slandered, 
ridiculed,  his  life's  life  lied  away.  'TAvas  poor  payment  for 
his  services,  he  exclaimed,  if  his  Majesty  should  give  ear  to 
these  calumniators,  and  should  give  him  no  chance  of  con¬ 
fronting  his  accusers  and  clearing  his  reputation.  Moreo 
detested  him,  as  he  knew,  and  Prince  Doria  said  that  the 
commander  once  spoke  so  ill  of  Farnese  in  Glenoa  that  he  Avas 
on  the  point  of  beating  him  ;  Avhile  Moreo  afterwards  told 
the  story  as  if  he  had  been  maltreated  because  of  defending 
Farnese  against  Doria's  slanders.22 


19  Philip  to  Parma,  30  Jan.  1590. 
(Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 

20  Instruction  que  S.  M.  dio  a  J.  B. 
Tassis,  para  Don  B.  de  Mendoza  and 
Comdador  Moreo,  May  3,  1590.  (Arch. 


de  Simancas  MS.) 

21  Parma  to  Idiaquez,  20  Oct.  1590. 
(Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 

22  Parma  to  Philip  ;  same  date, 
Ibid. 


PROTESTATIONS  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  PARMA. 


207 


1592. 


And  still  more  vehemently  did  he  inveigh  against  Moreo 
in  his  direct  appeals  to  Philip.23  He  had  intended  to  pass  over 
his  calumnies,  of  which  he  was  well  aware,  because  he  did  not 
care  to  trouble  the  dead — for  Moreo  meantime  had  suddenly 
died,  and  the  gossips,  of  course,  said  it  was  of  Farnese 
poison24 — hut  he  had  just  discovered  by  documents  that  the 
commander  had  been  steadily  and  constantly  pouring  these 
his  calumnies  into  the  monarch's  ears.  He  denounced  every 
charge  as  lies,  and  demanded  proof.  Moreo  had  further  been 
endeavouring  to  prejudice  the  Duke  of  Mayenne  against  the 
King  of  Spain  and  himself,  saying  that  he,  Farnese,  had  been 
commissioned  to  take  Mayenne  into  custody,  with  plenty  of 
similar  lies. 


“  But  what  I  most  feel,"  said  Alexander,  with  honest  wrath, 
“  is  to  see  that  your  Majesty  gives  ear  to  them  without  making 
the  demonstration  which  my  services  merit,  and  has  not  sent 
to  inform  me  of  them,  seeing  that  they  may  involve  my  re¬ 
putation  and  honour.  People  have  made  more  account  of 
these  calumnies  than  of  my  actions  performed  upon  the 
theatre  of  the  world.  I  complain,*  after  all  my  toils  and 
dangers  in  your  Majesty's  service,  just  when  I  stood  with  my 
soul  in  my  mouth  and  death  in  my  teeth,  forgetting  children, 
house,  and  friends,  to  he  treated  thus,  instead  of  receiving 
rewards  and  honour,  and  being  enabled  to  leave  to  my  children, 
what  was  better  than  all  the  riches  the  royal  hand  could 
bestow,  an  unsullied  and  honourable  name."25 

He  protested  that  his  reputation  had  so  ’  much  suffered  that 
he  would  prefer  to  retire  to  some  remote  corner  as  a  humble 


23  Parma  to  Philip,  20  Oct.  1590. 
(Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 

24  “  Murio  en  Miaux  a  los  treynta 
de  Agosto  (1590)  el  Comendador  Juan 
Moreo,”  says  Coloma  (iii.  47,  48), 
“  liombre  de  ingenio  prompto  y  arti- 
iicioso,  que  de  moderados  principios 
de  un  pobr'e  Caballero  de  Malta,  llego 
a  ser  primer  Mobil  de  las  furiosas 
guerras  que  abrasaron  tantos  anos  a 
Francia,  excessive  gastador  de  la 
Lazienda  del  rey,  y  atrevidissimo  com¬ 
prador  de  voluntades;  este  gauo  la 


del  Duque  de  Guisa  de  manera  que  le 
liizo  Espanol  de  corazor),  y  le  confi rmo 
en  el  aborrecimiento  contra  los  lierejes, 
y  sus  fautores  sin  exception  de  persona, 
tan  a  la  descubierta  que  le  costo  la 
vida  :  a  el  se  dixo  que  le  cost 6  la  suya 
lo  que  escrivio  al  rey  contra  el  Duque 
de  Parma ;  murio  casi  al  improviso 
despues  de  cierto  banquete,  que  oca- 
siono  esta  fama,  y  en  que  le  trago  no 
menos  infamia  que  acrecentamiento.” 
25  Ibid. 


208 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXYIII. 


servant  of  the  king,  and  leave  a  post  which  had  made  him  so 
odious  to  all.  Above  all,  he  entreated  his  Majesty  to  look 
upon  this  whole  affair  “  not  only  like  a  king  but  like  a  gentle¬ 
man.”26 

Philip  answered  these  complaints  and  reproaches  benig- 
nantly,  expressed  unbounded  confidence  in  the  duke,  assured 
him  that  the  calumnies  of  his  supposed  enemies  could  produce 
no  effect  upon  the  royal  mind,  and  coolly  professed  to  have 
entirely  forgotten  having  received  any  such  letter  as  that  of 
which  his  nephew  complained.  “  At  any  rate  I  have  mislaid 
it,”  he  said,  “  so  that  you  see  how  much  account  it  was  with 
me.”27 

As  the  king  was  in  the  habit  of  receiving  such  letters  every 
week,  not  only  from  the  commander,  since  deceased,  but 
from  Ybarra  and  others,  his  memory,  to  say  the  least,  seemed 
to  have  grown  remarkably  feeble.  But  the  sequel  will  very 
soon  show  that  he  had  kept  the  letters  by  him  and  pondered 
them  to  much  purpose.  To  expect  frankness  and  sincerity 
from  him,  however,  even  in  his  most  intimate  communications 
to  his  most  trusted  servants,  would  have  been  to  “  swim  with 
fins  of  lead.” 

Such  being  the  private  relations  between  the  conspirators, 
it  is  instructive  to  observe  how  they  dealt  with  each  other 
in  the  great  game  they  were  playing  for  the  first  throne  in 
Christendom.  The  military  events  have  been  sufficiently 
sketched  in  the  preceding  pages,  but  the  meaning  and 
motives  of  public  affairs  can  be  best  understood  by  occasional 
glances  behind  the  scenes.  It  is  well  for  those  who  would 
maintain  their  faith  in  popular  Governments  to  study  the 
workings  of  the  secret,  irresponsible,  arbitrary  system  ;  for 
every  Government,  as  every  individual,  must  be  judged  at 
last  by  those  moral  laws  which  no  man  born  of  woman  can 
evade. 

During  the  first  French  expedition — in  the  course  of  which 


26  Parma  to  Philip,  20  Oct.  1590. 
(Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.)  “Sea  ser- 
vido  V.  Md  considerar  no  tan  sola- 
mente  con  ojos  de  reymas  de  cavallero 


esto  negocio.” 

2T  Philip  to  Parma,  5  Dec.  1590. 
(Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 


1592. 


RELATIONS  BETWEEN  PHILIP  AND  MAYENNE.  209 


Farnese  had  saved  Paris  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  Henry, 
and  had  been  doing  his  best  to  convert  it  prospectively  into  the 
capital  of  his  master’s  empire — it  was  his  duty,  of  course,  to 
represent  as  accurately  as  possible  the  true  state  of  France. 
He  submitted  his  actions  to  liis  master’s  will,  but  he  never 
withheld  from  him  the  advantage  that  he  might  have  derived, 
had  he  so  chosen,  from  his  nephew’s  luminous  intelligence 
and  patient  observation. 

With  the  chief  personage  he  had  to  deal  with  he  professed 
himself,  at  first,  well  satisfied.  “  The  Duke  of  Mayenne,” 
said  he  to  Philip,  “  persists  in  desiring  your  Majesty  only 
as  Kijig  of  France,  and  will  hear  of  no  other  candidate, 
which  gives  me  satisfaction  such  as  can’t  be  exaggerated.”28 
Although  there  were  difficulties  in  the  way,  Farnese  thought 
that  the  two  together  with  God’s  help  might  conquer  them. 
“  Certainly  it  is  not  impossible  that  your  Majesty  may  suc¬ 
ceed,”  he  said,  “  although  very  problematical ;  and  in  case 
ygur  Majesty  does  succeed  in  that  which  we  all  desire  and  are 
struggling  for,  Mayenne  not  only  demands  the  second  place 
in  the  kingdom  for  himself,  but  the  fief  of  some  great  pro¬ 
vince  for  his  family.” 29  > 

Should  it  not  be  possible  for  Philip  to  obtain  the  crown, 
Farnese  was,  on  the  whole,  of  opinion  that  Mayenne  had 
better  be  elected.  In  that  event  he  would  make  over 
Brittany  and  Burgundy  to  Philip,  together  with  the  cities 
opposite  the  English  coast.  If  they  were  obliged  to  make 
the  duke  king,  as  was  to  be  feared,  they  should  at  any  rate 
exclude  the  Prince  of  Bearne,  and  secure,  what  was  the  chief 
point,  the  Catholic  religion.  “  This,”  said  Alexander,  “is 
about  what  I  can  gather  of  Mayenne’s  views,  and  perhaps  he 
will  put  them  down  in  a  despatch  to  your  Majesty.”30 

After  all,  the  duke  was  explicit  enough.  He  was  for  taking 
all  he  could  get — the  whole  kingdom  if  possible — but  if  foiled, 
then  as  large  a  slice  of  it  as  Philip  would  give  him  as  the 


28  Parma  to  Philip,  21  Oct.  1590. 
(Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.)  “Que  es  per¬ 
sists  el  D.  de  Umena  en  no  pretender 
otro  rey  que  Y.  Md  en  este  reyno  lo 

VOL.  III. — P 


cual  nos  viene  tan  a  cuento  que  no 
hay  para  que  endarescello.” 

29  Same  letter. 

30  Ibid. 


210 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVIII. 


price  of  his  services.  And  Philip’s  ideas  were  not  materially 
different  from  those  of  the  other  conspirator. 

Both  were  agreed  on  one  thing.  The  true  heir  must  he 
kept  out  of  his  rights,  and  the  Catholic  religion  he  maintained 
in  its  purity..  As  to  the  inclination  of  the  majority  of  the 
inhabitants,  they  could  hardly  he  in  the  dark.  They  knew 
that  the  Bearnese  was  instinctively  demanded  hy  the 
nation ;  for  his  accession  to  the  throne  would  furnish  the 
only  possible  solution  to  the  entanglements  which  had  so  long 
existed.31 

As  to  the  true  sentiments  of  the  other  politicians  and 
soldiers  of  the  League  with  whom  Farnese  came  in  contact 
in  France,  he  did  not  disguise  from  his  master  that  they  were 
anything  hut  favourable. 

“  That  you  may  know  the  humour  of  this  kingdom,”  said 
he,  “  and  the  difficulties  in  which  I  am  placed,  I  must  tell 
you  that  I  am  hy  large  experience  much  confirmed  in  that 
which  I  have  always  suspected.  Men  don’t  love  nor  esteem 
the  royal  name  of  your  Majesty ;  and  whatever  the  benefits 
and  assistance  they  get  from  you  they  have  no  idea  of  any¬ 
thing  redounding  to  your  benefit  and  royal  service,  except  so 
far  as  implied  in  maintaining  the  Catholic  religion  and  keeping 
out  the  Bearne.  These  two  things,  however,  they  hold  to  he 
so  entirely  to  yoRr  Majesty’s  profit,  that  all  you  are  doing 
appears  the  fulfilment  of  a  simple  obligation.  They  are  filled 
with  fear,  jealousy,  and  suspicion  of  your  Majesty.  They 
dread  your  acquiring  power  here.  Whatever  negotiations 
they  pretend  in  regard  to  putting  the  kingdom  or  any  of 
their  cities  under  your  protection,  they  have  never  had  any 
real  intention  of  doing  it,  hut  their  only  object  is  to  keep  up 
our  vain  hopes  while  they  are  carrying  out  their  own  ends. 
If  to-day  they  seem  to  have  agreed  upon  any  measure,  to¬ 
morrow  they  are  sure  to  get  out  of  it  again.  This  has  always 
been  the  case,  and  all  your  Majesty’s  ministers  that  have  had 
dealings  here  would  say  so,  if  they  chose  to  tell  the  truth. 
Men  are  disgusted  with  the  entrance,  of  the  army,  and  if  they 

*  n 

31  Parma  to  Philip,  Oct.  3,  1590.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 


1592.  FRENCH  HOSTILITY  TO  PHILIP.  211 

were  not  expecting  a  more  advantageous  peace  in  tlie  king¬ 
dom  with  my  assistance  than  without  it,  I  don't  know  what 
they  would  do  ;  for  I  have  heard  what  I  have  heard  and  seen 
what  I  have  seen.  They  are  afraid  of  our  army,  but  they 
want  its  assistance  and  our  money." 32 

Certainly  if  Philip  desired  enlightenment  as  to  the  real 
condition  of  the  country  he  had  determined  to  appropriate, 
and  the  true  sentiments  of  its  most  influential  inhabitants, 
here  was  the  man  most  competent  of  all  the  world  to  advise 
him,  describing  the  situation  for  him,  day  by  day,  in  the  most 
faithful  manner.  And  at  every  step  the  absolutely  puerile 
inadequacy  of  the  means  employed  by  the  king  to  accom¬ 
plish  his  gigantic  purposes  became  apparent.  If  the  crime 
of  subjugating  or  at  least  dismembering  the  great  kingdom 
of  France  were  to  be  attempted  with  any  hope  of  success,  at 
least  it  might  have  been  expected  that  the  man  employed 
to  consummate  the  deed  would  be  furnished  with  more  troops 
and  money  than  would  be  required  to  appropriate  a  savage 
island  in  the  Caribbean,  or  a  German  principality.  But 
Philip  expected  miracles  to  be  accomplished  by  the  mere 
private  assertion  of  his  will.  It  was  so  easy  to  conquer  realms 
at  the  writing  table. 

“  I  don't  say,"  continued  Farnese,  “  if  I  could  have  entered 
France  with  a  competent  army,  well  paid  and  disciplined, 
with  plenty  of  artillery  and  munitions,  and  with  funds 
enough  to  enable  Mayenne  to  buy  up  the  nobles  of  his 
party,  and  to  conciliate  the  leaders  generally  with  presents 
and  promises,  that  perhaps  they  might  not  have  softened. 
Perhaps  interest  and  fear  would  have  made  that  name  agree¬ 
able  which  pleases  them  so  little,  now  that  the  very  reverse 
of  all  this  has  occurred.  My  want  of  means  is  causing  a 
thousand  disgusts  among  the  natives  of  the  country,  and  it  is 
this  penury  that  will  be  the  chief  cause  of  the  disasters  which 
may  occur."  33 

Here  was  sufficiently  plain  speaking.  To  conquer  a  war¬ 
like  nation  without  an  army,  to  purchase  a  rapacious  nobility 
32  Parma  to  Philip,  Oct.  3,  1590.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.)  33  Ibid. 


212 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVIII. 


with  an  empty  purse,  were  tasks  which  might  break  the 
stoutest  heart.  They  were  breaking  Alexander's. 

Yet  Philip  had  funds  enough,  if  he  had  possessed  financial 
ability  himself,  or  any  -talent  for  selecting  good  financiers. 
The  richest  countries  of  the  old  world  and .  the  new  were 
under  his  sceptre  ;  the  mines  of  Peru  and  Mexico,  the  wealth 
of  farthest  Ind,  were  at  his  disposition  ;  and  moreover  he 
drove  a  lucrative  traffic  in  the  sale  of  papal  bulls  and  mass- 
books,  which  were  furnished  to  him  at  a  very  low  figure,  and 
which  he  compelled  the  wild  Indians  of  America  and  the 
savages  of  the  Pacific  to  purchase  of  him  at  an  enormous 
advance.  That  very  year,  a  Spanish  carrack  had  been  cap¬ 
tured  by  the  English  off  the  Barbary  coast,  with  an  assorted 
cargo,  the  miscellaneous  nature  of  which  gives  an  idea  of 
royal  commercial  pursuits  at  that  period.  Besides  wine  in 
large  quantities  there  were  fourteen  hundred  chests  of  quick¬ 
silver,  an  article  indispensable  to  the  working  of  the  silver 
mines,  and  which  no  one  but  the  king  could,  upon  pain  of 
death,  send  to  America.  He  received,  according  to  contract, 
for  every  pound  of  quicksilver  thus  delivered  a  pound  of 
pure  silver,  weight  for  weight.  The  ship  likewise  contained 
ten  cases  of  gilded  mass-books  and  papal  bulls.  The  bulls, 
two  million  and  seventy  thousand  in  number,  for  the  dead 
and  the  living,  were  intended  for  the  provinces  of  Hew 
Spain,  Yucatan,  Guatemala,  Honduras,  and  the  Philippines. 
The  quicksilver  and  the  bulls  cost  the  king  three  hundred 
thousand  florins,  but  he  sold  them  for  five  million.  The 
price  at  which  the  bulls  were  to  be  sold  varied — according  to 
the  letters  of  advice  found  in  the  ships — from  two  to  four 
reals  a  piece,  and  the  inhabitants  of  those  conquered  regions 
were  obliged  to  buy  them.34  “From  all  this,"  says  a  con¬ 
temporary  chronicler,  “is  to  be  seen  what  a  thrifty  trader 
was  the  king."  35 

The  affairs  of  France  were  in  such  confusion  that  it  was 
impossible  for  them,  according  to  Farnese,  to  remain  in  such 
condition  much  longer  without  bringing  about  entire  decom- 

34  Meteren,  xvi.  300. 


35  Ibid 


1592. 


STATE  OF  AFFAIRS  IN  FRANCE. 


213 


position.  Every  man  was  doing  as  lie  chose  —  whether 
governor  of  a  city,  commander  of  a  district,  or  gentleman  in 
his  castle.  Many  important  nobles  and  prelates  followed  the 
Boarnese  party,  and  Mayenne  was  entitled  to  credit  for  doing  ’ 
as  well  as  he  did.  There  was  no  pretence,  however,  that  his 
creditable  conduct  was  due  to  anything  but  the  hope  of  being 
well  paid.  “  If  your  Majesty  should  decide  to  keep  Mayenne,” 
said  Alexander,  “  you  can  only  do  it  with  large  sums  of 
money.  He  is  a  good  Catholic  and  very  firm  in  his  purpose, 
but  is  so  much  opposed  by  his  own  party,  that  if  I  had  not  so 
stimulated  him  by  hopes  of  his  own  grandeur,  he  would  have 
gio’wn  desperate  such  small  means  has  he  of  maintaining 
his  party  and,  it  is  to  be  feared,  he  would  have  made  ar¬ 
rangements  with  Bearne,  who  offers  him  carte-blanche.” 36 

#  disinterested  man  had  expressed  his  assent  to  the 
views  of  Philip  in  regard  to  the  assembly  of  the  estates  and 
the  election  of  king,  but  had  claimed  the  sum  of  six  hundred 
thousand  dollars  as  absolutely  necessary  to  the  support  of 
himself  and  followers  until  those  events  should  occur.37  Alex¬ 
ander  not  having  that  sum  at  his  disposal  was  inclined  to 
defer  matters,  but  was-  more  and  more  confirmed  in  his 
opinion  that  the  Duke  was  a  “  man  of  truth,  faith,  and  his 
word.” 38  He  had  distinctly  agreed  that  no  king  should  be 
elected,  not  satisfactory  to  Philip,  and  had  “  stipulated  in 
return  that  he  should  have  in  this  case,  not  only  the  second 

place  in  the  kingdom,  but  some  very  great  and  special  reward' 
in  full  property.” 39 

Thus  the  man  of  truth,  faith,  and  his  word  had  no  idea  of 

selling  himself  cheap,  but  manifested  as  much  commercial 

genius  as  the  Fuggers  themselves  could  have  displayed, 

had  they  been  employed  as  brokers  in  these  mercantile 
transactions. 

Above  all  things,  Alexander  implored  the  king  to  be 
expeditious,  resolute,  and  liberal ;  for,  after  all,  the  Beamese 
might  prove  a  more  formidable  competitor  than  he  was 


ll  P?rma  to  Philip,  Oct.  3,  1590.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS  1 
Hombrc  de  verdad,  fe  y  palabra.”  (Ibid. )  ^  Ibid. 


37 


Ibid. 


214 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXYIII. 


deemed.  “  These  matters  must  he  arranged  while  the  iron  is 
hot/'  he  said,  “  in  order  that  the  name  and  memory  of  the 
Bearne  and  of  all  his  family  may  he  excluded  at  once  and 
for  ever ;  for  your  Majesty  must  not  douht  that  the  whole 
kingdom  inclines  to  him,  both  because  he  is  natural  successor 
to  the  crown,  and  because  in  this  way  the  civil  war  would 
cease.  The  only  thing  that  gives  trouble  is  the  religious 
defect,  so  that  if  this  should  be  remedied  in  appearance, 
even  if  falsely,  men  would  spare  no  pains  nor  expense  in  his 
cause.”  40 

Ho  human  being  at  that  moment,  assuredly,  could  look 
into  the  immediate  future  accurately  enough  to  see  whether 
the  name  and  memory  of  the  man,  whom  his  adherents 
called  Henry  the  Fourth  of  France,  and  whom  Spaniards, 
legitimists  and  enthusiastic  papists,  called  the  Prince  of 
Bearne,  were  to  be  for  ever  excluded  from  the  archives  of 
France  ;  whether  Henry,  after  spending  the  whole  of  his  life 
as  a  pretender,  was  destined  to  bequeath  the  same  empty 
part  to  his  descendants,  should  they  think  it  worth  their  while 
to  play  it.  Meantime  the  sages  smiled  superior  at  his  delu¬ 
sion  ;  while  Alexander  Farnese,  On  the  contrary,  better 
understanding  the  chances  of  the  great  game  which  they 
were  all  playing,  made  bold  to  tell  his  master  that  all  hearts 
in  France  were  inclining  to  their  natural  lord.  u  Differing 
from  your  Majesty,”  said  he,  “  I  am  of  opinion  that  there  is 
no  better  means  of  excluding  him  than  to  make  choice  of  the 
Duke  of  Mayenne,  as  a  person  agreeable  to  the  people,  and 
who  could  only  reign  by  your  permission  and  support.”  41 

Thus,  after  much  hesitation  and  circumlocution,  the  nephew 
made  up  his  mind  to  chill  his  uncle's  hopes  of  the  crown,  and 
to  speak  a  decided  opinion  in  behalf  of  the  man  of  his  word, 
faith,  and  truth. 

And  thus  through  the  whole  of  the  two  memorable  cam¬ 
paigns  made  by  Alexander  in  France,  he  never  failed  to  give 


40  Parma  to  Philip,  Oct.  0,  1590. 
(Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.)  “  Quo  con 
esto  quedara  escluido  totalmente  el 
nombre  y  memoria  de  Bearne  y  de  los 


de  su  casa  a  quien  no  dude  V.  Md  de 
que  el  reyno  todo  inclina,  asi  por  ser 
naturalemente  sucesores  del,”  &c. 

41  Ibid. 


1592. 


REMONSTRANCES  OF  FARNESE. 


215 


liis  master  the  most  accurate  pictures  of  the  country,  and  an 
interior  view  of  its  politics  ;  urging  above  all  the  absolute 
necessity  of  providing  much  more  liberal  supplies  for  the 
colossal  adventure  in  which  he  was  engaged.  “  Money  and 
again  money  is  what  is  required/’  he  said.  “  The  principal 
matter  is  to  he  accomplished  with  money,  and  the  particular 
individuals  must  he  bought  with  money.  The  good  will  of 
every  French  city  must  he  bought  with  money.  Mayenne 
must  be  humoured.  He  is  getting  dissatisfied.  Very  pro¬ 
bably  he  is  intriguing  with  Bearne.  Everybody  is  pursuing 
his  private  ends.  Mayenne  has  never  abandoned  his  own 
wish  to  he  king,  although  he  sees  the  difficulties  in  the  way  ; 
and  while  he  has  not  the  power  to  do  us  as  much  good  .as  is 
thought,  it  is  certainly  in  his  hands  to  do  us  a  great  deal  of 

•  •  AO 

injury.  ~ 

When  his  army  was  rapidly  diminishing  by  disease,  deser¬ 
tion,  mutiny,  and  death,  he  vehemently  and  perpetually 
denounced  the  utter  ’  inadequacy  of  the  king’s  means  to  his 
vast  projects.  ITe  protested  that,  he  was  not  to  blame  for  the 
ruin  likely  to  come  upon  the  whole  enterprise.  He  had  be¬ 
sought,  remonstrated,  reasoned  with  Philip — in  vain.43  He 
assured  his  master  that  in  the  condition  of  weakness  in 
which  they  found  themselves,  not  very  triumphant  negotiations 
could  he  expected,  hut  that  he  would  do  his  best.  “The 
Frenchmen,”  he  said,  “are  getting  tired  of  our  disorders,  and 
scandalized  by  our  weakness,  misery,  and  poverty.  They  dis¬ 
believe  the  possibility  of  being  liberated  through  us.”  44 

He  was  also  most  diligent  in  setting  before  the  king’s  eyes 
the  dangerous  condition  of  the  obedient  Netherlands,  the 
poverty  of  the  finances,  the  mutinous  degeneration  of  the 
once  magnificent  Spanish  army,  the  misery  of  the  country, 
the  ruin  of  the  people,  the  discontent  of  the  nobles,  the 
rapid  strides  made  by  the  republic,  the  vast  improvement  in 
its  military  organization,  the  rising  fame  of  its  young  stad- 
liolder,  the  thrift  of  its  exchequer,  the  rapid  development 

42  Parma  to  Philip,  11  March,  1592.  (Arch,  ae  Simancas'MS.) 

43  Ibid.  41  Same  to  same,  2  June,  1592.  (Ibid.) 


216 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVIII. 


of  its  commerce,  the  menacing  aspect  which  it  assumed 
towards  all  that  was  left  of  Spanish  power  in  those  regions. 

Moreover,  in  the  midst  of  the  toils  and  anxieties  of  war¬ 
making  and  .negotiation,  he  had  found  time  to  discover  and 
to  send  to  his  master  the  left  leg  of  the  glorious  apostle  St. 
Philip,  and  the  head  of  the  glorious  martyr  St.  Lawrence,  to 
enrich  his  collection  of  relics  ;  and  it  may  he  doubted  whether 
these  treasures  were  not  as  welcome  to  the  king  as  would 
have  been  the  news  of  a  decisive  victory.45 

During  the  absence  of  Farnese  in  his  expeditions  against 
the  Bearnese,  the  government  of  his  provinces  was  tempo¬ 
rarily  in  the  hands  of  Peter  Ernest  Mansfeld. 

This  grizzled  old  fighter — testy,  choleric,  superannuated— 
was  utterly  incompetent  for  his  post.  He  was  a  mere  tool  in 
the  hands  of  his  son.  Count  Charles  hated  Parma  very  cor¬ 
dially,  and  old  Count  Peter  was  made  to  believe  himself  in 
danger  of  being  poisoned  or  poniarded  by  the  duke.  He  was 
perpetually  wrangling  with,  importuning  and  insulting  him 
in  consequence,  and  writing  malicious  letters  to  the  king 
in  regard  to  him.46  The  great  nobles,  Arschot,  Chimay, 
Berlaymont,  Champagny,  Arenberg,  and  the  rest,  were  all 
bickering  among  themselves,  and  agreeing  in  nothing  save  in 
hatred  to  Farnese. 

A  tight  rein,  a  full  exchequer,  a  well-ordered  and  well- 
paid  army,  and  his  own  constant  patience,  were  necessary,  as 
Alexander  too  well  knew,  to  make  head  against  the  republic, 


45  Parma  to  Philip,  4  July,  1592. 
(Arch  de  Simancas  MS.)  Philip  to. 
Parma,  1  Aug.  1592.  Ibid.  “  Quanto 
a  la  cabeza  del  glorioso  San  Lorenzo 
agradezco  os  el  cuydado  que  mostrais 
de  haberla  y  os  encargo  que  lo  lleveis 
adelante  hasta  salir  con  ello  que  os 
tendre  en  muclio  particular  servicio 
que  se  liaga  por  vuestro  medio.” 
Parma  to  Philip,  24  Aug.  1592.  Ibid. 
Philip  to  Parma,  11  Sept.  1592.  Letter 
to  Parma.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  (Paris') 
MS.  A  56,  **•  MS.) 

4G  Parma  to  Philip,  31  July,  1592, 
(Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.)  Parma  to 
Peter  Ernest  Mansfeld,  6  Aug.  1592. 


Mansfeld  to  Philip,  8  Aug.  1592. 
Parma  to  Mansfeld,  16  Aug.  1592. 
Parma  to  Philip,  24  Aug.  1592. 
“Porque  con  su  larga  vejez,”  said 
Fuentes  of  Peter  Ernest,  “se  halla 
muy  decrepito  ydesacordado  que  esto  y 
ver  quan  sugeto  esta  al  hijo  qui  le 
govierna  como  a  una  criatura.”  Fuen¬ 
tes  to  Philip,  13  Dec.  1592.  (Arch,  de 
Simancas  MS.)  Esteven  de  Yvarra  to 

- ,  9  April,  1593 — Ibid.  Fuentes 

to  Philip,  28  April,  1593— Ibid.  Ybarra 

1° - ,  2  May,  1593 — Ibid.  Same  to 

Philip,  26th  July,  1593— Ibid.  Fuentes 
to  the  Secretaries  of  State,  2  Sept.  1593 
—Ibid. 


1592. 


PLOT  AGAINST  FARNESE. 


217 


and  to  hold  what  was  left  of  the  Netherlands.  But  with  a 
monthly  allowance,  and  a  military  force  not  equal  to  his  own 
estimates  for  the  Netherland  work,  he  was  ordered  to  go 
forth  from  the  Netherlands  to  conquer  France — and  with  it 
the  dominion  of  the  world — for  the  recluse  of  the  Escorial. 

Very  soon  it  was  his  duty  to  lay  hare  to  his  master,  still 
more  unequivocally  than  ever,  the  real  heart  of  Mayenne. 
No  one  could  surpass  Alexander  in  this  skilful  vivisection 
of  political  characters  ;  and  he  soon  sent  the  information  that 
the  Duke  was  in  reality  very  near  closing  his  bargain  with 
the  Bearnese,  while  amusing  Philip  and  drawing  largely  from 
his  funds. 

Thus,  while  faithfully  doing  his  master’s  work  with  sword 
and  j)en,  with  an  adroitness  such  as  no  other  man  could 
have  matched,  it  was  a  necessary  consequence  that  Philip 
should  suspect,  should  detest,  should  resolve  to  sacrifice 
him.  While  assuring  his  nephew,  as  we  have  seen,  that 
elaborate,  slanderous  reports  and  protocols  concerning  him, 
sent  with  such  regularity  by  the  chivalrous  Moreo  and  the 
other  spies,  had  been  totally  disregarded,  even  if  they  had 
ever  met  his  eye,  he  was  quietly  preparing — in  the  midst  of 
all  these  most  strenuous  efforts  of  Alexander,  in  the  field  at 
peril  of  his  life,  in  the  cabinet  at  the  risk  of  his  soul — to 
deprive  him  of  his  office,  and  to  bring  him,  by  stratagem  if 
possible,  but  otherwise  by  main  force,  from  the  Netherlands 
to  Spain. 

This  project,  once  resolved  upon,  the  king  proceeded  to 
execute  with  that  elaborate  attention  to  detail,  with  that 
feline  stealth  which  distinguished  him  above  all  kings  or 
chiefs  of  police  that  have  ever  existed.  Had  there  been 
a  murder  at  the  end  of  the  plot,  as  perhaps  there  was  to 
be — Philip  could  not  have  enjoyed  himself  more.  Nothing 
surpassed  the  industry  for  mischief  of  this  royal  invalid. 

The  first  thing  to  be  done  was  of  course  the  inditing  of  a 
most  affectionate  epistle  to  his  nephew. 

“  Nephew,”  said  he,  “  you  know  the  confidence  which  I 
have  always  placed  in  you  and  all  that  I  have  put  in  your 


218 


THE  UNITEJ)  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVIII. 


hands  ;  and  I  know  how  much  you  are  to  me,  and  how 
earnestly  you  work  in  my  service,  and  so,  if  I  could  have 
you  at  the  same  time  in  several  places,  it  would  he  a  great 
relief  to  me.  Since  this  cannot  he  however,  I  wish  to  make 
use  of  your  assistance,  according  to  the  times  and  occasions, 
in  order  that  I  may  have  some  certainty  as  to  the  manner  in 
which  all  this  business  is  to  be  managed,  may  see  why  the 
settlement  of  affairs  in  France  is  thus  delayed,  and  what 
the  state  of  things  in  Christendom  generally  is,  and  may 
consult  with  you  about  an  army  which  I  am  getting  levied 
here,  and  about  certain  schemes  now  on  foot  in  regard  to  the 
remedy  for  all  this ;  all  which  makes  me  desire  your  presence 
here  for  some  time,  even  if  a  short  time,  in  order  to  resolve 
upon  and  arrange,  with  the  aid  of  your  advice  and  opinion, 
many  affairs  concerning  the  public  good  and  facilitate  their 
execution  by  means  of  your  encouragement  and  presence, 
and  to  obtain  the  repose  which  I  hope  for  in  putting  them 
into  your  hands.  And  so  I  charge  and  command  you  that, 
if  you  desire  to  content  me,  you  use  all  possible  diligence  to 
let  me  see  you  here  as  soon  as  possible,  and  that  you  start 
at  once  for  Genoa.”47 

lie  was  further  directed  to  leave  Count  Mansfeld  at  the 
head  of  affairs  during  this  temporary  absence, — as  had  been 
the  case  so  often  before, — instructing  him  to  make  use  of 
the  Marquis  of  Cerralbo,  who  was  already  there,  to  lighten 
labours  that  might  prove  too  much  for  a  man  of  Mansfeld's 
advanced  age. 

“  I  am  writing  to  the  marquis,”  continued  the  king,  “  tell¬ 
ing  him  that  he  is  to  obey  all  your  orders.  As  to  the  reasons 
of  your  going  away,  you  will  give  out  that  it  is  a  decision  of 
your  own,  founded  on  good  cause,  or  that  it  is  a  summons 
of  mine,  but  full  of  confidence  and  good  will  towards  you,  as 
you  see  that  it  is.” 48 

The  date  of  this  letter  was  20th  February,  1592. 

The  secret  instructions  to  the  man  who  was  thus  to  obey 
all  the  duke's  orders  were  explicit  enough  upon  that  point, 

47  Philip  to  Parma,  20  Feb.  1592.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.)  48  Ibid. 


1592. 


RECALL  OF  FARNESE  TO  SPAIN 


219 


although  they  were  wrapped  in  the  usual  closely-twisted 
phraseology  which  distinguished  Philip’s  style  when  his  pur¬ 
pose  was  most  direct. 

Cerralbo  was  entrusted  with  general  directions  as  to  the 
French  matter,  and  as  to  peace  negotiations  with  “  the 
Islands  ;’’  hut  the  main  purport  of  his  mission  was  to  re¬ 
move  Alexander  Farnese.  This  was  to  he  done  hy  fair  means, 
if  possible  ;  if  not,  he  was  to  he  deposed  and  sent  home  hy 
force. 

This  was  to  he  the  reward  of  all  the  toil  and  danger 
through  which  he  had  grown  grey  and  broken  in  the  king’s 
service. 

“  When  you  get  to  the  Netherlands  ”  (for  the  instructions 
were  older  than  the  letter  to  Alexander  just  cited),  “you 
are,”  said  the  king,  “  to  treat  of  the  other  two  matters  until 
the  exact  time  arrives  for  the  third,  taking  good  care  not  to 
cut  the  thread  of  good  progress  in  the  affairs  of  France  if  hy 
chance  they  are  going  on  well  there. 

“When  the  time  arrives  to  treat  of  commission  number 
three,”  continued  his  Majesty,  “you  will  take  occasion  of  the 
arrival  of  the  courier  of  20tli  February,  and  will  give  with 
much  secrecy  the  letter  of  that  date  to  the  duke  ;  showing 
him  at  the  same  time  the  first  of  the  two  which  you  will 
have  received.” 

If  the  duke  showed  the  letter  addressed  to  him  hy  his 
uncle — which  the  reader  has  already  seen — then  the  marquis 
was  to  discuss  with  him  the  details  of  the  journey,  and  com¬ 
ment  upon  the  benefits  and  increased  reputation  which  would 
he  the  fesult  of  his  return  to  Spain. 

“  But  if  the  duke  should  not  show  you  the  letter,”  pro¬ 
ceeded  Philip,  “  and  you  suspect  that  he  means  to  conceal 
and  equivocate  about  the  particulars  of  it,  you  can  show  him 
your  letter  number  two,  in  which  it  is  stated  that  you  have 
received  a  copy  of  the  letter  to  the  duke.  This  will  make  the 
step  easier.” 

Should  the  duke  declare  himself  ready  to  proceed  to  Spain 
on  the  ground  indicated — that  the  king  had  need  of  his  ser- 


220 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVIII. 


vices — the  marquis  was  then  to  hasten  his  departure  as 
earnestly  as  possible.  Every  pains  were  to  he  taken  to  over¬ 
come  any  objections  that  might  he  made  by  the  duke  on  the 
score  of  ill  health,  while  the  great  credit  'which  attached  to 
this  summons  to  consult  with  the  king  in  such  arduous  affairs 
was  to  he  duly  enlarged  upon.  Should  Count  Mansfeld 
meantime  die  of  old  age,  and  should  Farnese  insist  the  more 
vehemently,  on  that  account,  upon  leaving  his  son  the  Prince 
Ranuccio  in  his  post  as  governor,  the  marquis  was  authorised 
to  accej)t  the  proposition  for  the  moment — although  secretly 
instructed  that  such  an  appointment  was  really  quite  out  of 
the  question — if  by  so  doing  the  father  could  be  torn  from  the 
place  immediately. 

But  if  all  would  not  do,  and  if  it  should  become  certain 
that  the  duke  would  definitively  refuse  to  take  his  departure, 
it  would  then  become  necessary  to  tell  him  clearly,  but 
secretly,  that  no  excuse  would  be  accepted,  but  that  go  he 
must  ;  and  that  if  he  did  not  depart  voluntarily  within  a  fixed 
time,  he  would  be  publicly  deprived  of  office  and  conducted 
to  Spain  by  force.49 

But  all  these  things  were  to  be  managed  with  the  secrecy 
and  mystery  so  dear  to  the  heart  of  Philip.  The  marquis 
was  instructed  to  go  first  to  the  castle  of  Antwerp,  as  if  upon 
financial  business,  and  there  begin  his  operations.  Should  he 
find  at  last  all  his  private  negotiations  and  coaxings  of  no 
avail,  he  was  then  to  make  use  of  his  secret  letters  from  the 
king  to  the  army  commanders,  the  leading  nobles  of  the 
country,  and  of  the  neighbouring  princes,  all  of  whom  were  to 
be  undeceived  in  regard  to  the  duke,  and  to  be  informed 
of  the  will  of  his  majesty.50 

The  real  successor  of  Farnese  was  to  be  the  Archduke 
Albert,  Cardinal  of  Austria,  son  of  Archduke  Ferdinand,  and 
the  letters  on  this  subject  were  to  be  sent  by  a  “  decent 
and  confidential  person"  so  soon  as  it  should  become  ob¬ 
vious  that  force  would  be  necessary  in  order  to  compel  the 


49  Sumario  de  lo  que  S.  M<i  es  ser- 
vido  que  liaga  V.  en  su  comision  prin¬ 
cipal  como  mas  particularmente  se  le 


ha  diclio  de  palabra.  31  Dec.  1591. 
(Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 

50  Ibid. 


1592.  TREACHERY  OF  PHILIP  TOWARDS  FARNESE.  221 

departure  of  Alexander.  For  if  it  came  to  open  rupture,  it 
would  be  necessary  to  have  the  cardinal  ready  to  take  the 
place.  If  the  affair  were  arranged  amicably,  then  the  new 
governor  might  proceed  more  at  leisure.  The  marquis 
was  especially  enjoined,  in  case  the  duke  should  be  in 
France,  and  even  if  it  should  be  necessary  for  him  to  follow 
him  there  on  account  of  commissions  number  one  and  two, 
not  to  say  a  word  to  him  then  of  his  recall,  for  fear  of 
damaging  matters  in  that  kingdom.  He  was  to  do  his  best 
to  induce  him  to  return  to  Flanders,  and  when  they  were 
both  there,  he  was  to  begin  his  operations.51 

Thus,  with  minute  and  artistic  treachery,  did  Philip  pro¬ 
vide  for  the  disgrace  and  ruin  of  the  man  who  was  his  near 
blood  relation,  and  who  had  served  him  most  faithfully  from 
earliest  youth.  It  was  not  possible  to  carry  out  the  project 
immediately,  for,  as  it  has  already  been  narrated,  Farnese, 
after  achieving,  in  spite  of  great  obstacles  due  to  the  dulness 
of  the  king  alone,  an  extraordinary  triumph,  had  been  dan¬ 
gerously  wounded,  and  was  unable  for  a  brief  interval  to 
attend  to  public  affairs. 

On  the  conclusion  of  his  Rouen  campaign  he  had  returned 
to  the  Netherlands,  almost  immediately  betaking  himself  to 
the  waters  of  Spa.  The  Marquis  de  Cerralbo  meanwhile  had 
been  superseded  in  his  important  secret  mission  by  the  Count 
of  Fuentes,  who  received  the  same  instructions  as  had  been 
provided  for  the  marquis. 

.  But  ere  long  it  seemed  to  become  unnecessary  to  push 
matters  to  extremities.  Farnese,  although  nominally  the 
governor,  felt  himself  unequal  to  take  the  field  against  the 
vigorous  young  commander  who  was  carrying  everything 
before  him  in  the  north  and  east.  Upon  the  Mansfelds  was 
the  responsibility  for  saving  Steenwyk  and  Coeworden,  and 
to  the  Mansfelds  did  Yerdugo  send  piteously,  but  in  vain,  for 
efficient  help.  For  the  Mansfelds  and  other  leading  per¬ 
sonages  in  the  obedient  Netherlands  were  mainly  occupied  at 

61  MS.  last  cited.  Also  Philip  to  the  Duke  of  Sessa,  ambassador  at  Rome, 
3  Nov.  1592,  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.)  Philip  to  Parma,  same  date.  (Ibid.) 


222  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXVIII. 

that  time  in  annoying  F arnese,  calumniating  his  actions,  laying 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  his  administration,  military  and  civil, 
and  bringing  him  into  contempt  with  the  populace.  When  the 
weary  soldier  broken  in  health,  wounded  and  harassed  with 
obtaining  triumphs  for  his  master  such  as  no  other  living 
man  could  have  gained  with  the  means  placed  at  his  disposal 
-returned  to  drink  the  waters  previously  to  setting  forth  anew 
upon  the  task  of  achieving  the  impossible,  he  was  made  the 
mark  of  petty  insults  on  the  part  of  both  the  Mansfelds. 
Neither  of  them  paid  their  respects  to  him,  ill  as  he  was, 
until  four  days  after  his  arrival.  When  the  duke  subse¬ 
quently  called  a  council,  Count  Peter  refused  to  attend  it  on 
account  of  having  slept  ill  the  night  before.  Champagny, 
who  was  one  of  the  chief  mischief-makers,  had  been  banished 
by  Parma  to  his  house  in  Burgundy.  He  became  very  much 
alarmed,  and  was  afraid  of  losing  his  head.  He  tried  to 
conciliate  the  duke,  but  finding  it  difficult  he  resolved  to 
turn  monk,  and  so  went  to  the  convent  of  Capuchins,  and 
begged  hard  to  be  admitted  a  member.  They  refused  him 
on  account  of  his  age  and  infirmities.  He  tried  a  Franciscan 
monastery  with  not  much  better  success,  and  then  obeyed 
orders  and  went  to  his  Burgundy  mansion,  having  been 
assured  by  Farnese  that  he  was  not  to  lose  his  head.  Alex¬ 
ander  was  satisfied  with  that  arrangement,  feeling  sure, 
he  said,  that  so  soon  as  his  back  was  turned  Champagny 
would  come  out  of  his  convent  before  the  term  of  pro¬ 
bation  had  expired,  and  begin  to  make  mischief  again. 
A  once  valiant  soldier,  like  Champagny,  whose  conduct 
in  the  famous  “fury  of  Antwerp”  was  so  memorable,  and 
whose  services  both  in  field  and  cabinet  had  been  so  dis¬ 
tinguished,  fallen  so  low  as  to  be  used  as  a  tool  by  the 
Mansfelds  against  a  man  like  Farnese,  and  to  be  rejected 
as  unfit  company  by  Flemish  friars,  is  not  a  cheerful  spec¬ 
tacle  to  contemplate. 

The  walls  of  the  Mansfeld  house  and  gardens,  too,  were 
decorated  by  Count  Charles  with  caricatures,  intending  to 
illustrate  the  indignities  put  upon  his  father  and  himself. 


1592.  SUFFERINGS  AND  DEATH  OF  FARNESE.  223 

Among  others,  one  picture  represented  Count  Peter  lying  tied 
hand  and  foot,  while  people  were  throwing  filth  upon  him ; 
Count  Charles  being  pourtrayed  as  meantime  being  kicked 
away  from  the  command  of  a  battery  of  cannon  by  De  la 
Motte.  It  seemed  strange  that  the  Mansfelds  should  make 
themselves  thus  elaborately  .ridiculous,  in  order  to  irritate 
Farnese  ;  but  thus  it  was.  There  was  so  much  stir  about 
these  works  of  art  that  Alexander  transmitted  copies  of  them 
to  the  king,  whereupon  Charles  Mansfeld,  being  somewhat 
alarmed,  endeavoured  to  prove  that  they  had  been  entirely 
misunderstood.  The  venerable  personage  lying  on  the 
ground,  he  explained,  was  not  his  father,  but  Socrates.  He 
found  it  difficult  however  to  account  for  the  appearance  of 
La  Motte,  with  his  one  arm  wanting  and  with  artillery  by  his 
side,  because,  as  Farnese  justly  remarked,  artillery  had  not 
been  invented  in  the  time  of  Socrates52  nor  was  it  recorded 
that  the  sage  had  lost  an  arm. 

Thus  passed  the  autumn  of  1592,  and  Alexander,  having 
as  he  supposed  somewhat  recruited  his  failing  strength,  pre¬ 
pared,  according  to  his  master's  orders,  for  a  new  campaign 
in  France.  For  with  almost  preterhuman  malice  Philip  was 
employing  the  man  whom  he  had  doomed  to  disgrace,  per¬ 
haps  to  death,  and  whom  he  kept  under  constant  secret 
supervision,  in  those  laborious  efforts  to  conquer  without  an 
army  and  to  purchase  a  kingdom  with  an  empty  purse,  in 
which,  as  it  was  destined,  the  very  last  sands  of  Parma's  life 
were  to  run  away. 

Suffering  from  a  badly  healed  wound,  from  water  on  the 
chest,  degeneration  of  the  heart,  and  gout  in  the  limbs, 
dropsical,  enfeebled,  broken  down  into  an  old  man  before  his 
time, .  Alexander  still  confronted  disease  and  death  with  as 
heroic  a  front  as  he  had  ever  manifested  in  the  field  to 
embattled  Hollanders  and  Englishmen,  or  to  the  still  more 
formidable  array  of  learned  pedants  and  diplomatists  in  the 
hall  of  negotiation.  This  wreck  of  a  man  was  still  fitter  to 

62  Parma  to  Pliilip,  28  Oct.  1592.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 


224 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVIII. 


lead  armies  and  guide  councils  than  any  soldier  or  statesman 
that  Philip  could  call  into  his  service,  yet  the  king’s  cruel 
hand  was  ready  to  stab  the  dying  man  in  the  dark. 

Nothing  could  surpass  the  spirit  with  which  the  soldier 
was  ready  to  do  battle  with  his  best  friend,  coming  in  the 
guise  of  an  enemy.  To  the  last  moment,  lifted  into  the 
saddle,  he  attended  personally  as  usual  to  the  details  of  his 
new  campaign,  and  was  dead  before  he  would  confess  himself 
mortal.55  On  the  3rd  of  December,  1592,  in  the  city  of 
Arras,  he  fainted  after  retiring  at  his  usual  hour  to  bed,  and 
thus  breathed  his  last. 

According  to  the  instructions  in  his  last  will,  he  was  laid 
out  barefoot  in  the  robe  and  cowl  of  a  Capuchin  monk.  Sub¬ 
sequently  his  remains  were  taken  to  Parma,  and  buried 
under  the  pavement  of  the  little  Franciscan  church.54  A 
pompous  funeral,  in  which  the  Italians  and  Spaniards 
quarrelled  and  came  to  blows  for  precedence,  was  celebrated 
in  Brussels,  and  a  statue  of  the  hero  was  erected  in  the 
capitol  at  Rome. 

The  first  soldier  and  most  unscrupulous  diplomatist  of  his 


53  Bentivoglio,  t.  ii.  lib.  vi.  p.  370.  “  E 
prima  conosciuto  si  morto  cbe  volesse 
confesarsi  mortale.”  Compare  Coloma, 
v.  106.  Meteren,  xvi.  306.  Bor,  III.  | 
xxix.  661.  Reyd,  ix.  195.  Dondini, 
iii.  639,  segq. 

54  Ibid.  The  inscription  over  liis 
tomb  was  as  follows : — 

Alexander  Farnesius, 

Belgis  Devictis 
Et  Francis  obsidione  levatis 
Ut  liumili  hoc  loco 
Ejus  cadaver  reponeretur 
Mandavit  iiii.  Non  Decemb. 

An.  mdxcii. 

Dondini,  iii.  642. 

« 

It  appears  by  a  letter  of  Marquis 
d’Havre  to  Philip  that  the  death  of 
Farnese  took  place  on  the  3rd  Decem¬ 
ber.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 

So  soon  as  his  decease  was  known  at 
Madrid,  the  first  thought  of  Philip 
was  to  conceal  'from  the  pope  that  it 
had  been  his  intention  forcibly  to  re¬ 
call  him  from  the  Netherlands.  The ! 


Spanish  ambassador  at  Rome  was 
accordingly  instructed  to  burn  the 
papers  which  had  been  sent  to  him, 
and  to  suppress  all  the  communications 
which  he  had  been  on  the  point  of 
making  to  the  pope. 

“  Don  Cristoval  and  Don  Juan  are  . 
of  opinion,”  said  their  minute  laid  be¬ 
fore  the  king,  “  that  since  the  notifica¬ 
tion  sent  to  Rome  was  to  remedy  the 
damage  that  the  report  of  the  recall 
might  cause  at  that  court,  now  that 
all  this  has  ceased  with  the  death  of 
the  recalled, . it  is  best  to  con¬ 

ceal  that  intention  from  the  pope  and 
from  all  others,  and  that  it  is  sufficient 
for  the  Duke  of  Sessa  to  be  informed  of 
the  truth,”  &c. 

Philip  noted  on  this  memorandum 
with  his  own  hand  a  decided  ap¬ 
proval  of  the  suggestion,  ordering  it  to 
be  carried  into  effect,  adding,  “  Let  the 
Duke  of  Sessa  be  told  to  burn  the 
letter  and  the  copy  that  was  sent  with 
it,”  &c.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 


1592. 


DEATH  OP  ALEXANDER  FARNESE. 


225 


age,  he  died  when  scarcely  past  his  prime,  a  wearied,  broken¬ 
hearted  old  man.  His  triumphs,  military  and  civil,  have 
been  recorded  in  these  pages,  and  his  character  has  been 
elaborately  pourtrayed.  Were  it  possible  to  conceive  of  an 
Italian  or  Spaniard  of  illustrious  birth  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  educated  in  the  school  of  Machiavelli,  at  the  feet  of 
Philip,  as  anything  but  the  supple  slave  of  a  master  and 
the  blind  instrument  of  a  Church,  one  might  for  a  moment 
regret  that  so  many  gifts  of  genius  and  valour  had  been 
thrown  away  or  at  least  lost  to  mankind.  Could  the  light 
of  truth  ever  pierce  the  atmosphere  in  which  such  men  have 
their  being  ;  could  the  sad  music  of  humanity  ever  penetrate 
to  their  ears  ;  could  visions  of  a  world — on  this  earth  or  beyond 
it — not  exclusively  the  property  of  kings  and  high-priests  be 
revealed  to  them,  one  might  lament  that  one  so  eminent 
among  the  sons  of  women  had  not  been  a  great  man.  But  it 
is  a  weakness  to  hanker  for  any  possible  connection  between 
truth  and  Italian  or  Spanish  statecraft  of  that  day.  The 
truth  was  not  in  it  nor  in  him,  and  high  above  his  heroic 
achievements,  his  fortitude,  his  sagacity,  his  chivalrous  self- 
sacrifice,  shines  forth  the  baleful  light  of  his  perpetual 
falsehood.55 


55 1  pass  over,  as  beneath  the  level 
of  history,  a  great  variety  of  censorious 
and  probably  calumnious  reports  as  to 
the  private  character  of  Farnese,  with 
which  the  secret  archives  of  the  times 
are  filled.  Especially  Champagny,  the 
man  by  whom  the  duke  was  most 
hated  and  feared,  made  himself  busy 
in  compiling  the  slanderous  chronicle 
in  which  the  enemies  of  Farnese,  both 
in  Spain  and  the  Netherlands,  took  so 
much  delight.  According  to  the  secret 
history  thus  prepared  for  the  enlight¬ 
enment  of  the  king  and  his  ministers, 
the  whole  administration  of  the  Nether¬ 
lands — especially  the  financial  depart¬ 
ment,  with  the  distribution  of  offices — 
was  in  the  hands  of  two  favourites,  a 
beardless  secretary  named  Cosmo  de 
Massi,  and  a  lady  of  easy  virtue  called 
Franceline,  who  seems  to  have  had  a 
numerous  host  of  relatives  and  friends 
to  provide  for  at  the  public  expense. 

VOL.  III. — Q 


Towards  the  latter  end  of  the  duke’s 
life,  it  was  even  said  that  the  seal  of 
the  finance  department  was  in  the 
hands  of  his  valet-de-cliambre,  who,  in 
his  master’s  frequent  absences,  was  in 
the  habit  of  issuing  drafts  upon  the 
receiver-general.  As  the  valet-de- 
cliambre  was  described  as  an  idiot  who 
did  not  know  how  to  read,  it  may  be 
believed  that  the  finances  fell  into  con¬ 
fusion.  Certainly,  if  such  statements 
were  to  be  accepted,  it  would  be 
natural  enough  that  for  every  million 
dollars  expended  by  the  king  in  the 
provinces,  not  more  than  one  hundred 
thousand  were  laid  out  for  the  public 
service  ;  and  this  is  the  estimate  made 
by  Champagny,  who,  as  a  distin¬ 
guished  financier  and  once  chief  of  the 
treasury  in  the  provinces,  might  cer¬ 
tainly  be  thought  to  know  something 
of  the  subject.  But  Chamjiagny  was 
so  beside  himself  with  rage,,  hatred. 


226 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXVIII. 


and  terror,  where  Alexander  was  con¬ 
cerned,  that  he  is  as  unfit  a  guide  for 
those  who  wish  the  truth  as  Com¬ 
mander  Moreo  or  Ybarra. 

“Juan  Baptista  ayuda  de  camera, 
Italiano — para  mas  vilipendicia  de 
finanzas  el  sello  dellas,  que  solia 
guardar  uno  de  los  chefs,  a  estado  en 
manos  de  Juan  Baptista — se  sellan 
sin  el  (Farnese)  mas  al  alvidrio  de 
Baptista  idiota  que  no  scave  leer  o  de 
Rinaldi.  .  .  .  En  suma  es  todo  con¬ 
fusion  y  desorden  y  reduzir  solo  apro- 


vecho  destos  y  tales  quanto  se  haze. 
.  .  .  .  Demas  las  mohatras  de  los 
usureros  y  mercaderes  que  con  sus 
cambios  y  recambios  pagas  en  panos  y 
sedas  y  otras  trampas,  entendiendose 
con  estos  reforzando  el  dinero  en 
diversos  partes  hay  en  que  no  viene  a 
resultar  al  rey  su  milion  quasi  en  cien 
mil  escudos,”  &c.  Discours  du  Seign¬ 
eur  de  Champagny  sur  les  affaires  des 
Pays  Bas,  21  Dec.  1589.  Bibliotheque 
de  Bourgogne,  MS.  No.  12,962. 


/ 


1593. 


SPANISH  FORCES  SENT  TO  FRANCE 


227 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 


Effect  of  the  death  of  Farnese  upon  Philip’s  schemes  —  Priestly  flattery  and 
counsel  —  Assembly  of  the  States-General  of  France  —  Meeting  of  the 
Leaguers  at  the  Louvre  —  Conference  at  Surene  between  the  chiefs  of  the 
League  and  the  “  political  ”  leaders  —  Henry  convokes  an  assembly  of 
bishops,  theologians,  and  others  —  Strong  feeling  on  all  sides  on  the  subject 
of  the  succession  —  Philip  commands  that  the  Infanta  and  the  Duke  of 
Guise  be  elected  King  and  Queen  of  France  —  Manifesto  of  the  Duke  of 
Mayenne  —  Formal  re-admission  of  Henry  to  the  Roman  faith  —  The  pope 
refuses  to  consent  to  his  reconciliation  with  the  Church  —  His  consecration 
with  the  sacred  oil — Entry  of  the  king  into  Paris  —  Departure  of  the 
Spanish  garrison  from  the  capital  —  Dissimulation  of  the  Duke  of  Mayenne 
—  He  makes  terms  with  Henry  —  Grief  of  Queen  Elizabeth  on  receipt  of 
the  communications  from  France. 

During  the  past  quarter  of  a  century  there  had  been  tragic 
scenes  enough  in  France,  hut  now  the  only  man  who  could 
have  conducted  Philip's  schemes  to  a  tragic  if  not  a  successful 
issue  was  gone.  Friendly  death  had  been  swifter  than 
Philip,  and  had  removed  Alexander  from  the  scene  before  his 
master  had  found  fitting  opportunity  to  inflict  the  disgrace 
on  which  he  was  resolved.  Meantime,  Charles  Mansfeld 
made  a  feeble  attempt  to  lead  an  army  from  the  Nether¬ 
lands  into  France,  to  support  the  sinking  fortunes  of  the 
League ;  but  it  was  not  for  that  general  of  artillery  to 
attempt  the  well-graced  part  of  the  all-accomplished  Far¬ 
nese  with  much  hope  of  success.  A  considerable  force 
of  Spanish  infantry,  too,  had  been  sent  to  Paris,  where 
they  had  been  received  with  much  enthusiasm  ;  a  very 
violent  and  determined  churchman,  Sega,  archbishop  of 
Piacenza,  and  cardinal-legate,  having  arrived  to  check  on  the 
part  of  the  holy  father  any  attempt  by  the  great  wavering 
heretic  to  get  himself  readmitted  into  the  fold  of  the  faithful.1 

The  King  of  Spain  considered  it  his  duty,  as  well  as  his 

1  De  Thou,  xi.  675. 


228 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIX. 


unquestionable  right,  to  interfere  in  the  affairs  of  F ranee,  and 
to  save  the  cause  of  religion,  civilization  and  humanity,  in 
the  manner  so  dear  to  the  civilization-savers,  by  reducing 
that  distracted  country — utterly  unable  to  govern  itself — 
under  his  sceptre.  To  achieve  this  noble  end  no  bribery  was 
too  wholesale,  no  violence  too  brutal,  no  intrigue  too  paltry. 
It  was  his  sacred  and  special  mission  to  save  France  from 
herself.  If  he  should  fail,  he  could  at  least  carve  her  in 
pieces,  and  distribute  her  among  himself  and  friends.  F rench- 
men  might  assist  him  in  either  of  these  arrangements,  but  it 
was  absurd  to  doubt  that  on  him  devolved  the  work  and  the 
responsibility.  Yet  among  his  advisers  were  some  who 
doubted  whether  the  purchase  of  the  grandees  of  France  was 
really  the  most  judicious  course  to  pursue.  There  was  a 
general  and  uneasy  feeling  that  the  grandees  were  making 
sport  of  the  Spanish  monarch,  and  that  they  would  be 
inclined  to  remain  his  stipendiaries  for  an  indefinite  period, 
without  doing  their  share  of  the  work.  A  keen  Jesuit,  who 
had  been  much  in  France,  often  whispered  to  Philip  that  he 
was  going  astray.  u  Those  who  best  understand  the  fit 
remedy  for  this  unfortunate  kingdom,  and  know  the  tastes 
and  temper  of  the  nation/'  said  he,  “  doubt  giving  these  vast 
presents  and  rewards  in  order  that  the  nobles  of  France  may 
affect  your  cause  and  further  your  schemes.  It  is  the  greatest 
delusion,  because  they  love  nothing  but  their  own  interest, 
and  for  this  reason  wish  for  no  king  at  all,  but  prefer  that  the 
kingdom  should  remain  topsy-turvy  in  order  that  they  may 
enjoy  the  Spanish  doubloons,  as  they  say  themselves  almost 
publicly,  dancing  and  feasting  ;  that  they  may  take  a  castle 
to-day,  and  to-morrow  a  city,  and  the  day  after  a  province, 
and  so  on  indefinitely.  What  matters  it  to  them  that  blood 
flows,  and  that  the  miserable  people  are  destroyed,  who  alone 
are  good  for  anything  ?”2 

u  The  immediate  cause  of  the  ruin  of  France,"  continued 


2  Relacion  del  Padre  Ant0  Crespo 
acerca  de  las  cosas  de  Flandes  y 
Francia  (citing  the  conveisations  and 


statements  of  John  de  Zelander  and 
Father  Odo),  1593.  (x\rch.  de  Siman- 
cas  MS.) 


1593. 


JESUITICAL  COUNSEL. 


229 


the  Jesuit,  “  comes  from  two  roots  which  must  be  torn  up ; 
the  one  is  the  extreme  ignorance  and  scandalous  life  of  the 
ecclesiastics,  the  other  is  the  tyranny  and  the  abominable  life 
of  the  nobility,  who  with  sacrilege  and  insatiable  avarice  have 
entered  upon  the  property  of  the  Chflrch.  This  nobility  is 
divided  into  three  factions.  The  first,  and  not  the  least,  is 
heretic  ;  the  second  and  the  most  pernicious  is  politic  or 
atheist ;  the  third  and  last  is  catholic.  All  these,  although 
they  differ  in  opinion,  are  the  same  thing  in  corruption  of  life 
and  manners,  so  that  there  is  no  choice  among  them/'  He 
then  proceeded  to  set  forth  how  entirely  the  salvation  of 
France  depended  on  the  King  of  Spain.  “  Morally  speaking,” 
he  said,  “it  is  impossible  for  any  Frenchman  to  apply  the 
remedy.  For  this  two  things  are  wanting  ;  intense  zeal  for 
the  honour  of  God,  and  power.  I  ask  now  what  Frenchman 
has  both  these, -or  either  of  them.  No  one  certainly  that 
we  know.  It  is  the  King  of  Spain  who  alone  in  the  world  has 
the  zeal  and  the  power.  No  man  who  knows  the  insolence 
and  arrogance  of  the  French  nature  will  believe  that  even  if 
a  king  should  be  elected  out  of  France  he  would  be  obeyed 
by  the  others.  The  first  to  oppose  him  would  be  Mayenne, 
even  if  a  king  were  chosen  from  his  family,  unless  everything 
should  be  given  him  that  he  asked,  which  would  be  impos¬ 
sible.” 

Thus  did  the  wily  priest  instil  into  the  ready  ears  of  Philip 
additional  reasons  for  believing  himself  the  incarnate  pro¬ 
vidence  of  God.  When  were  priestly  flatterers  ever  wanting 
to  pour  this  poison  into  the  souls  of  tyrants  P  It  is  in  vain 
for  us  to  ask  why  it  is  permitted  that  so  much  power  for  evil 
should  be  within  the  grasp  of  one  wretched  human  creature, 
but  it  is  at  least  always  instructive  to  ponder  the  career  of 
these  crowned  conspirators,  and  sometimes  consoling  to  find 
its  conclusion  different  from  the  goal  intended.  So  the 
J esuit  advised  the  king  not  to  be  throwing  away  his  money 
upon  particular  individuals,  but  with  the  funds  which  they 
were  so  unprofitably  consuming  to  form  a  jolly  army  (g  altar  do 
cgercito )  of  fifteen  thousand  foot,  and  five  thousand  horse,  all 


230 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIX. 


Spaniards,  under  a  Spanish  general — not  a  Frenchman  being 
admitted  into  it — and  then  to  march  forward,  occupy  all  the 
chief  towns,  putting  Spanish  garrisons  into  them,  hut  sparing 
the  people,  who  now  considered  the  war  eternal,  and  who 
were  eaten  up  by  bo*th  armies.  In  a  short  time  the  king 
might  accomplish  all  he  wished,  for  it  was  not  in  the  power 
of  the  Bearnese  to  make  considerable  resistance  for  any  length 
of  time.3 

This  was  the  plan  of  Father  Odo  for  putting  Philip  on  the 
throne  of  France,  and  at  the  same  time  lifting  up  the  down¬ 
trodden  Church,  whose  priests,  according  to  his  statement, 
were  so  profligate,  and  whose  tenets  were  rejected  by  all  but 
a  small  minority  of  the  governing  classes  of  the  country. 
Certainly  it  did  not  lack  precision,  but  it  remained  to  be  seen 
whether  the  Bearnese  was  to  prove  so  very  insignificant  an 
antagonist  as  the  sanguine  priest  supposed. 

For  the  third  party — the  moderate  Catholics — had  been 
making  immense  progress  in  France,  while  the  diplomacy  of 
Philip  had  thus  far  steadily  counteracted  their  efforts  at 
Home.  In  vain  had  the  Marquis  Pisani,  envoy  of  the  poli¬ 
ticians'  party,  endeavoured  to  soften  the  heart  of  Clement 
towards  Henry.  The  pope  lived  in  mortal  fear  of  Spain, 
and  the  Duke  of  Sessa,  Philip's  ambassador  to  the  hol^ 
see,  denouncing  all  these  attempts  on  the  part  of  the  heretic 
and  his  friends,  and  urging  that  it  was  much  better  for  Rome 
that  the  pernicious  kingdom  of  France  should  be  dismem¬ 
bered  and  subdivided,  assured  his  holiness  that  Rome 
should  be  starved,  occupied,  annihilated,  if  such  abominable 
schemes  should  be  for  an  instant  favoured. 

Clement  took  to  his  bed  with  sickness  brought  on  by  all 
this  violence,  but  had  nothing  for  it  but  to  meet  Pisani  and 
other  agents  of  the  same  cause  with  a  peremptory  denial,  and 
send  most  stringent  messages  to  his  legate  in  Paris,  who 
needed  no  prompting.4 

There  had  already  been  much  issuing  of  bulls  by  the  pope, 


3  MS.  last  cited. 


4  De  Tliou,  xii.  120. 


1593.  ARRANGEMENTS  FOR  ELECTION  OF  KING. 


231 


and  much,  burning  of  bulls  by  the  hangman,  according  to 
decrees  of  the  parliament  of  Chalons  and  other  friendly 
tribunals,  and  burning  of  Chalons  decrees  by  Paris  hangmen, 
and  edicts  in  favour  of  Protestants  at  Nantz  and  other 
places  measures  the  enactment,  repeal,  and  re-enactment 
of  which  were  to  mark  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  great  tide  of 
human  opinion  on  the  most  important  of  subjects,  and  the 
traces  of  which  were  to  be  for  a  long  time  visible  on  the  shores 
of  time. 

Early  in  1593  Mayenne,  yielding  to  the  pressure  of  the 
Spanish  party,  reluctantly  consented  to  assemble  the  States- 
General  of  France,  in  order  that  a  king  might  be  chosen.6 
The  duke,  who  came  to  be  thoroughly  known  to  Alexander 
Farnese  before  the  death  of  that  subtle  Italian,  relied  on  his 
capacity  to  outwit  all  the  other  champions  of  the  League  and 
agents  of  Philip  now  that  the  master-spirit  had  been  re¬ 
moved.  As  firmly  opposed  as  ever  to  the  election  of  any 
other  candidate  but  himself,  or  possibly  his  son,  according  to 
a  secret  proposition  which  he  had  lately  made  to  the  pope,7 
he  felt  himself  obliged  to  confront  the  army  of  Spanish 
diplomatists,  Roman  prelates,  and'  learned  doctors,  by  whom 
it  was  proposed  to  exclude  the  Prince  of  Bearne  from  his 
pretended  rights.  But  he  did  not,  after  all,  deceive  them  as 
thoroughly  as  he  imagined.  The  Spaniards  shrewdly  suspected 
the  French  tactics,  and  the  whole  business  was  but  a  round 
game  of  deception,  in  which  no  one  was  much  deceived,  who¬ 
ever  might  be  destined  ultimately  to  pocket  the  stakes. 
“  I  know  from  a  very  good  source,”  said  Fuentes,  “  that 
Mayenne,  Guise,  and  the  rest  of  them  are  struggling  hard 
in  order  not  to  submit  to  Bearne,  and  will  suffer  everything 


6  De  Thou,  xi.  369,  370,  seqq. 

6  Ibid.  665-670. 

7  “Entrando  en  platicas  con  el  comi- 
sario  del  papa  qui  vino  de  Francia  ha 
venido  declararme  en  gran  secreto  que 
el  Duca  de  Umena  le  dixo  con  el 
mismo  no  vendria  en  la  election  sino 
fuese  en  su  hi  jo  como  lo  escrivia  al 
papa  y  a  el  pidio  lo  hiziesse  y  dixesse 
convenia  para  el  bien  de  aquel  reyno.” 


Fuentes  to  Philip,  9  June,  1593. 
(Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 

“  Mostrorae  algo  de  lo  que  le  escriven 
en  esto  y  demas  de  lo  que  de  Roma  le 
avisa  que  el  de  Umena  haze  instancia 
para  que  la  gente  del  papa  se  de  a  su 
liijo  y  que  anda  separada  de  la  de 
Y.  Md.”  Same  to  same,  20  June. 
1593.  (Ibid.) 


232 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIX. 


your  Majesty  may  do  to  them,  even  if  you  kick  them  in  the 
mouth,  hut  still  there  is  no  conclusion  on  the  road  we  are 
travelling,  at  least  not  the  one  which  your  Majesty  desires. 
They  will  go  on  procrastinating  and  gaining  time,  making 
authority  for  themselves  out  of  your  Majesty’s  grandeur,  until 
the  condition  of  things  comes  which  they  are  desiring.  Feria 
tells  me  that  they  are  still  taking  your  Majesty’s  money,  hut 
I  warn  your  Majesty  that  it  is  only  to  fight  off  Bearne,  and 
that  they  are  only  pursuing  their  own  ends  at  your  Majesty’s 
expense.” 8 

Perhaps  Mayenne  had  already  a  sufficiently  clear  insight 
into  the  not  far-distant  future,  hut  he  still  presented  him¬ 
self  in  Spanish  cloak  and  most  ultramontane  physiognomy. 
His  pockets  were  indeed  full  of  Spanish  coin  at  that 
moment,  for  he  had  just  claimed  and  received  eighty-eight 
thousand  nine  hundred  dollars  for  hack  debts,  together  with 
one  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  dollars  more  to  distribute 
among  the  deputies  of  the  estates.9  “  All  I  can  say  about 
France,”  said  Fuentes,  “is  that  it  is  one  great  thirst  for 
money.  The  Duke  of  Feria  believes  in  a  good  result,  but 
I  think  that  Mayenne  is  only  trying  to  pocket  as  much 
money  as  he  can.”10 

Thus  fortified,  the  Duke  of  Mayenne  issued  the  address  to 
the  States-General  of  the  kingdom,  to  meet  at  an  early  day 
in  order  to  make  arrangements  to  secure  religion  and  peace, 
and  to  throw  off  the  possible  yoke  of  the  heretic  pretender. 
The  great  seal  affixed  to  the  document  represented  an  empty 
throne,  instead  of  the  usual  effigy  of  a  king.11 

The  cardinal-legate  issued  a  thundering  manifesto  at  the 


8  Tambien  lie  sabido  de  buen  ori¬ 
ginal  que  el  D.  de  Umena,  Guisa  y  los 
demas  por  no  venir  al  partido  con  el  de 
Bearne,  aunque  vicareen,  sufriran  todo 
lo  que  V.  Md  liiziere  con  ellos  aunque 
les  pise  la  boca,  y  que  en  quanto  se 
fuere  por  el  camino  que  agora, no habra, 
conclusion,  a  lo  menos  la  que  V.  Md. 
dessea,  y  que  iran  dando  mucbas  largas 
para  dartiempo  al  tiempo,  authorizan- 
dose  en  tanto  con  la  grandeza  de  V.  Md. 
kasta  llegar  el  estado  que  dessean.” 


Fuentes  to  Philip,  9  June,  1593. 
(Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.)  Same  to 
same,  20  June,  1593.  (Ibid.) 

9  Feria  to  Philip,  20  March,  1593. 
(Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 

10  Lo  que  puedo  dezir  de  Francia  es 
todo  sed  de  dinero — el  de  Umena  como 
se  espera  sacarle  quanto  dinero  pudi- 
ere,  temo  tan  ruyn  suceso  como  en  to¬ 
do,”  &c.  Fuentes  to ,  22  May, 1593. 

(Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 

11  De  Thou,  ubi  sup. 


1593.  ASSEMBLY  OF  THE  ESTATES  OF  FRANCE.  233 

same  time  sustaining  Mayenne  and  virulently  denouncing 
the  Beninese.12 

The  politicians’  party  now  seized  the  opportunity  to  impress 
upon  Henry  that  the  decisive  moment  was  come. 

The  Spaniard,  the  priest,  and  the  League,  had  heated  the 
furnace.  The  iron  was  at  a  white  heat.  Now  was  the  time 
to  strike.  Secretary  of  State  Revol,  Gaspar  de  Schomberg, 
Jacques  Auguste  de  Thou,  the  eminent  historian,  and  other 
influential  personages  urged  the  king  to  give  to  the  great 
question  the  only  possible  solution. 

Said  the  king  with  much  meekness,  “  If  I  am  in  error,  let 
those  who  attack  me  with  so  much  fury  instruct  me,  and  show 
me  the  way  of  salvation.  I  hate  those  who  act  against  their 
conscience.  I  pardon  all  those  who  are  inspired  by  truly 
religious  motives,  and  I  am  ready  to  receive  all  into  favour 
whom  the  love  of  peace,  not  the  chagrin  of  ill-will,  has  dis¬ 
gusted  with  the  war.”  13 

There  was  a  great  meeting  of  Leaguers  at  the  Louvre, 
to  listen  to  Mayenne,  the  cardinal-legate,  Cardinal  Pelleve,  the 
Duke  of  Guise,  and  other  chieftains;  The  Duke  of  F eria  made 
a  long  speech  in  Latin,  setting  forth  the  Spanish  policy,  veiled 
as  usual,  but  already  sufficiently  well  known,  and  assuring 
the  assembly  that  the  King  of  Spain  desired  nothing  so  much 
as  the  peace  of  France  and  of  all  the. world,  together  with  the 
supremacy  of  the  Roman  Church.  Whether  these  objects 
could  best  be  attained  by  the  election  of  Philip  or  of  his 
daughter,  as  sovereign,  with  the  Archduke  Ernest  as  king- 
consort,  or  with  perhaps  the  Duke  of  Guise  or  some  other 
eligible  husband,  were  fair  subjects  for  discussion.  No  selfish 
motive  influenced  the  king,  and  he  placed  all  his  wealth  and 
all  his  armies  at  the  disposal  of  the  League  to  carry  out  these 
great  projects.14 

Then  there  was  a  conference  at  Surene  between  the  chiefs 
of  the  League  and  the  u  political”  leaders  ;  the  27  April, 
Archbishop  of  Lyons,  the  cardinal-legate,  Yillars,  1593. 
Admiral  of  France  and  defender  of  Rouen,  Belin,  Governor 

12  De  Thou,  xi.  675.  13  Ibid.  G83.  14  Ibid.  703-705. 


234 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIX. 


of  Palis,  President  Jeannin,  and  others  upon  one  side  j  upon 
the  other,  the  Archbishop  of  Bourges,  Bellievre,  Schomberg; 
Revol,  and  Be  Thou.15 

Tlic  Aichbishop  ot  Lyons  said  that  their  party  would  do 
nothing  either  to  frustrate  or  to  support  the  mission  of 
Pisani,  and  that  the  pope  would,  as  ever,  do  all  that  could 
be  done  to  maintain  the  interests  of  the  true  religion.16 

The  Archbishop  of  Bourges,  knowing  well  the  meaning  of 
such  line  phiases,  replied  that  he  had  much  respect  for  the 
holy  father,  but  that  popes  had  now  become  the  slaves  and 
tools  of  the  King  of  Spain,  who,  because  he  was  powerful,  held 
them  subject  to  his  caprice.17 

At  an  adjourned  meeting  at  the  same  place,  the  Archbishop 
10  May,  of  Lyons  said  that  all  questions  had  been  asked  and 
lo93.  answered.  All  now  depended  on  the  pope,  whom 
the  League  would  always  obey.  If  the  pope  would 'accept 
the  leconciliation  of  the  Prince  of  Bearne  it  was  well.  He 
hoped  that  his  conversion  would  be  sincere.18 

The  political  aichbishop  (of  Bourges)  replied  to  the  Leagued 
aichbishop,  that  theie  was  no  time  for  delays,  and  for  journeys 
by  land  and  sea  to  Rome.  The  least  obstruction  might 
piove  fatal  to  both  parties.  Let  the  Leaguers  now  show 

that  the  serenity  of  their  faces  was  but  the  mirror  of  their 
minds. 

But  the  Leaguers'  archbishop  said  that  he  could  make  no 
further  advances.  So  ended  the  conference.19 

The  chiefs  of  the  politicians  now  went  to  the  king  and 
infoimed  him  that  the  decisive  moment  had  arrived.29 

Henry  had  preserved  his  coolness  throughout.  Amid  all 
the  hubbub  of  learned  doctors  of  law,  archbishops — Leaguer 
and  political— Sorbonne  pedants,  solemn  grandees  from  Spain 
with  Latin  orations  in  their  pockets,  intriguing  Guises, 
huckstering  Mayennes,  wrathful  Huguenots,  sanguinary 
cardinal-legates,  threatening  world-monarchs — heralded  by 
Spanish  musketeers,  Italian  lancers,  and  German  reiters — 

16  De  Thou,  xi.  719-755.  «  Ibid.  11  Ibid.  ™  Ibid 

19  Ibid.  so  Ibid>  74a 


1593.  HENRY’S  COUNCIL  OF  ADVISERS.  235 

shrill  screams  of  warning  from  the  English  queen,  grim  de¬ 
nunciations  from  Dutch  Calvinists,  scornful  repulses  from  the 
holy  father  ;  he  kept  his  temper  and  his  eye-sight,  as  perfectly 
as  he  had  ever  done  through  the  smoke  and  din  of  the 
wildest  battle-field.  None  knew  better  than  he  how  to  detect 
the  weakness  of  the  adversary,  and  to  sound  the  charge  upon 
his  wavering  line. 

He  blew  the  blast — sure  that  loyal  Catholics  and  Protestants 
alike  would  now  follow  him  pell-mell. 

On  the  16th  May,  1593,  he  gave  notice  that  he  consented 
to  get  himself  instructed,  and  that  he  summoned  an  ig  May, 
assembly  at  Mantes  on  the  15th  July,  of  bishops,  1593- 
theologians,  princes,  lords,  and  courts  of  parliament  to  hold 
council,  and  to  advise  him  what  was  best  to  do  for  religion 
and  the  State.21 

Meantime  he  returned  to  the  siege  of  Dreux,  made  an 
assault  on  the  place,  was  repulsed,  and  then  hung  nine 
prisoners  of  war  in  full  sight  of  the  garrison  as  a  punishment 
for  their  temerity  in  resisting  him.22  The  place  soon  after 
capitulated  (8th  July,  1593). 

The  interval  between  the  summons  and  the  assembling  of 
the  clerical  and  lay  notables  at  Mantes  was  employed  by  the 
Leaguers  in  frantic  and  contradictory  efforts  to  retrieve  a 
game  which  the  most  sagacious  knew  to  be  lost.  But  the 
politicians  were  equal  to  the  occasion,  and  baffied  them  at 
every  point. 

The  Leaguers’  archbishop  inveighed  bitterly  against  the 
abominable  edicts  recently  issued  in  favour  of  the  Protes¬ 
tants.  * 

The  political  archbishop  (of  Bourges)  replied  not  by  defend¬ 
ing,  but  by  warmly  disapproving,  those  decrees  of  toleration, 
by  excusing  the  king  for  having  granted  them  for  a  temporary 
purpose,  and  by  asserting  positively  that,  so  soon  as  the  king 
should  be  converted,  he  would  no  longer  countenance  such 
measures.23 

It  is  superfluous  to  observe  that  very  different  language 

21  Dc  Thou,  xi.  751.  22  Ibid.  xii.  G.  23  Ibid.  xi.  753. 


236 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


dnAP.  XXIX 


was  held  on  the  part  of  Henry  to  the  English  and  Dutch 
Protestants,  and  to  the  Huguenots  of  his  own  kingdom. 

And  there  were  many  meetings  of  the  Leaguers  in  Paris, 
many  belligerent  speeches  by  the  cardinal  legate,  proclaiming 
war  to  the  knife  rather  than  that  the  name  of  Henry  the 
heretic  should  ever  he  heard  of  again  as  candidate  for 
the  throne,  various  propositions  spasmodically  made  in  full 
assembly  by  Feria,  Ybarra,  Tassis,  the  jurisconsult  Mendoza, 
and  other  Spanish  agents  in  favour  of  the  Infanta  as  queen  of 
France,  with  Archduke  Ernest  or  the  Duke  of  Guise,  or  any 
other  eligible  prince,  for  her  husband. 

The  League  issued  a  formal  and  furious  invective  in  answer 
to  Henry’s  announcement ;  proving  by  copious  citations  from 
Jeremiah,  St.  Epiphany,  St,  Jerome,  St.  Cyprian,  and  St. 
Bernard,  that  it  was  easier  for  a  leopard  to  change  his  spots 
or  for  a  blackamoor  to  he  washed  white,  than  for  a  heretic  to 
be  converted,  and  that  the  king  was  thinking  rather  of  the 
crown  of  F ranee  than  of  a  heavenly  crown,  in  his  approaching 
conversion — an  opinion  which  there  were  few  to  gainsay.24 

And  the  Duke  of  Nemours  wrote  to  his  half-brother,  the 
Duke  of  Mayenne,  offering  to  use  all  his  influence  to  bring 
about  Mayenne’s  election  as  king  on  condition  that  if  these 

efforts  failed,  Mayenne  should  do  his  best  to  procure  the 
election  of  Nemours.25 

And  the  Parliament  of  Paris  formally  and  prospectively 
proclaimed  any  election  of  a  foreigner  null  and  void,  and  sent 
deputies  to  Mayenne  urging  him  never  to  consent  to  the 
election  of  the  Infanta. 

What  help,  said  they,  can  the  League  expect  from  the  old 
and  broken  Philip,  from  a  king  who  in  thirty  years  has  not 
been  able,  with  all  the  resources  of  his  kingdoms,  to  subdue 
the  revolted  provinces  of  the  Netherlands  ?  How  can  he  hope 
to  conquer  France  P  P ay  no  further  heed  to  the  legate,  they  * 
said,  who  is  laughing  in  his  sleeve  at  the  miseries  and  dis¬ 
tractions  of  our  country.26  So  spake  the  deputies  of  the 
League-Parliament  to  the  great  captain  of  the  League, 

24  De  Thou,  xi.  761.  25  Ibid.  779.  26  Ibid.  784 


1593  PHILIP’S  ORDER  RESPECTING  THE  CROWN.  237 

the  Duke  of  Mayenne.  It  was  obvious  that  the  u  great  and 
holy  confederacy  ”  was  becoming  less  confident  of  its  invinci¬ 
bility.  Madame  League  was  suddenly  grown  decrepit  in  the 
eyes  of  her  adorers. 

Mayenne  was  angry  at  the  action  of  the  Parliament,  and 
vehemently  swore  that  he  would  annul  their  decree.  Parlia¬ 
ment  met  his  threats  with  dignity,  and  resolved  to  stand  by 
the  decree,  even  if  they  all  died  in  their  places.27 

At  the  same  time  the  Duke  of  Feria  suddenly  produced 
in  full  assembly  of  Leaguers  a  written  order  from  Philip  that 
the  Duke  of  Guise  and  the  Infanta  should  at  once  be  elected 
king  and  queen.28  Taken  by  surprise,  Mayenne  dissembled 
his  rage  in  masterly  fashion,  promised  Feria  to  support  the 
election,  and  at  once  began  to  higgle  for  conditions.  He 
stipulated  that  he  should  have  for  himself  the  governments  of 
Champagne,  Burgundy,  and  La  Brie,  and  that  they  should  be 
hereditary  in  his  family.  He  furthermore  demanded  that 
Guise  should  cede  to  him  the  principality  of  J  oinville,  and 
that  they  should  pay  him  on  the  spot  in  hard  money  tv  o 
hundred  thousand  crowns  in  gold,  six  hundred  thousand  more 
in  different  payments,  together  with  an  annual  payment  of 
fifty  thousand  crowns.29 , 

It  was  obvious  that  the  duke  did  not  undervalue  himself, 
but  he  had  after  all  no  intention  of  falling  into  the  trap  set 
for  him.  u  He  has  made  these  promises  (as  above  given) 
in  writing,”  said  the  Duke  of  Savoy’s  envoy  to  his  master, 
“  but  he  will  never  keep  them.  The  Duchess  of  Mayenne 
could  not  help  telling  me  that  her  husband  will  never  consent 
that  the  Duke  of  Guise  should  have  the  throne.”  70  From  this 
resolve  he  had  never  wavered,  and  was  not  likely  to  do  so 
now.  Accordingly  the  man  u  of  his  word,  of  faith,  and  truth, 
whom  even  the  astute  Farnese  had  at  times  half  believed  in, 
and  who  had  received  millions  of  Philip’s  money,  now  thought 
it  time  to  break  with  Philip. 

He  issued  a  manifesto,31  in  which  he  observed  that  the 

27  De  Thou,  xi.  787.  28  Ibid  xiL  8-  #  23  Ibid.  10. 

80  MS.  de  Mesmes,  t.  xi.  893,  cited  by  Capefigue,  vi.  208. 

S1  De  Thou,  xii.  13-24 


238  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXIX. 

States-General  of  France  had  desired  that  Philip  should  he 
elected  King  of  France,  and  carry  out  his  design  of  a  universal 
monarchy,  as  the  only  means  of  ensuring  the  safety  of  the 
Catholic  religion  and  the  pacification  of  the  world.  It  was 
feared,  however,  said  Mayenne,  that  the  king  might  come  to 
the  same  misfortunes  which  befell  his  father,  who,  when  it 
was  supposed  that  he  was  inspired  only  by  private  ambition, 
and  by  the  hope  of  placing  a  hereditary  universal  crown  in 
his  family,  had  excited  the  animosity  of  the  princes  of  the 
empire.  “  If  a  mere  suspicion  had  caused  so  great  a  misfor¬ 
tune  in  the  empire/'  continued  the  man  of  his  word,  “  what 
will  the  princes  of  all  Europe  do  when  they  find  his  Majesty 
elected  king  of  France,  and  grown  by  increase  of  power  so 
formidable  to  the  world  ?  Can  it  be  doubted  that  they  will 
fly  to  arms  at  once,  and  give  all  their  support  to  the  King  of 
Navarre,  heretic  though  he  be  ?  What  motive  had  so  many 
princes  to  traverse  Philip's  designs  in  the  Netherlands,  but 
desire  to  destroy  the  enormous  power  which  they  feared  P 
Therefore  had  the  Queen  of  England,  although  refusing  the 
sovereignty,  defended  the  independence  of  the  Netherlands 
these  fifteen  years. 

“  However  desirable,"  continued  Mayenne,  “that  this  uni¬ 
versal  monarchy,  for  which  the  house  of  Austria  has  so  long 
been  working,  should  be  established,  yet  the  king  is  too 
prudent  not  to  see  the  difficulties  *in  his  way.  Although  he 
has  conquered  Portugal,  he  is  prevented  by  the  fleets  of 
Holland  and  England  from  taking  possession  of  the  richest 
of  the  Portuguese  possessions,  the  islands  and  the  Indies.  He 
will  find  in  France  insuperable  objections  to  his  election  as 
king,  for  he  could  in  this  case  well  reproach  the  Leaguers 
with  having  been  changed  from  Frenchmen  into  Spaniards. 
He  must  see  that  his  case  is  hopeless  in  France,  he  who  for 
thirty  years  has  been  in  vain  endeavouring  to  re-establish  his 
authority  in  the  Netherlands.  It  would  be  impossible  in  the 
present  position  of  affairs  to  become  either  the  king  or  the 
protector  of  France..  The  dignity  of  France  allows  it  not."32 

32  De  Thou,  xii.  13-24. 


1593. 


“  INSTRUCTION  ”  OF  HENRY. 


•  239 


Mayenne  then  insisted  on  the  necessity  of  a  truce  with  the 
royalists  or  politicians,  and,  assembling  the  estates  at  the 
Louvre  on  the  4th  July,  he  read  a  written  paper  declining 
for  the  moment  to  hold  an  election  for  king.33 

J ohn  Baptist  Tassis,  next  day,  replied  by  declaring  that  in 
this  case  Philip  would  send  no  more  succours  of  men  or 
money  ;  for  that  the  only  effectual  counter-poison  to  the  pre¬ 
tended  conversion  of  the  Prince  of  Bearne  was  the  immediate 
election  of  a  king.34 

Thus  did  Maj^nne  escape  from  the  snare  in  which  the 
Spaniards  thought  to  catch  the  man  who,  as  they  now  knew, 
was  changing  every  day,  and  was  true  to  nothing  save  his  own 
interests. 

And  now  the  great  day  had  come.  The  conversion  of 
Henry  to  the  Koman  faith,  fixed  long  before  for  the  23rd 
July,  1593,  formally  took  place  at  the  time  appointed.35 
From  six  in  the  morning  till  the  stroke  of  noon  did  Henry 
listen  to  the  exhortations  and  expoundings  of  the  learned 
prelates  and  doctors  whom  he  had  convoked,  the  politic  Arch¬ 
bishop  of  Bourges  taking  the  lead  in  this  long-expected  in¬ 
struction.  After  six  mortal  hours  had  come  to  an  end,  the 
king  rose  from  his  knees,  somewhat  wearied,  but  entirely 
instructed  and  convinced.  He  thanked  the  bishops  for  having 
taught  him  that  of  which  he  was  before  quite  ignorant,  and 
assured  them  that,  after  having  invoked  the  light  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  upon  his  musings,  he  should  think  seriously  over  what 
they  had  just  taught  him,  in  order  to  come  to  a  resolution 
salutary  to  himself  and  to  the  State.36 

Nothing  could  be  more  candid.  Next  day,  at  eight  in  the 
morning,  there  was  a  great  show  in  the  cathedral  of  Saint 
Denis,  and  the  population  of  Paris,  notwithstanding  the  pro¬ 
hibition  of  the  League  authorities,  rushed  thither  in  immense 
crowds  to  witness  the  ceremony  of  the  reconciliation  of  the 
king.  Henry  went  to  the  church,  clothed  as  became  a  freshly 
purified  heretic,  in  white  satin  doublet  and  hose,  white  silk 
stockings,  and  white  silk  shoes  with  white  roses  in  them  ;  but 
33  I)e  Thou,  xii.  24.  34  Ibid.  35  Ibid.  30-35.  36  Ibid. 


240  . 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  ' 


Chap.  XXIX. 


with  a  black  liat  and  a  black  mantle.57  There  was  a  great 
procession  with  blare  of  trumpet  and  heat  of  drum.  The 
streets  were  strewn  with  flowers. 

As  Henry  entered  the  great  portal  of  the  church,  he  found 
the  Archbishop  of  Bourges,  seated  in  state,  effulgent  in  mitre 
and  chasuble,  and  surrounded  by  other  magnificent  prelates 
in  gorgeous  attire. 

“  Who  are  you,  and  what  do  you  want  ?”  said  the  arch¬ 
bishop. 

“  I  am  the  king/'  meekly  replied  Henr^,  “  and  I  demand 
to  be  received  into  the  bosom  of  the  Koman  Catholic  Church/' 

“  Do  you  wish  it  sincerely  ?”  asked  the  prelate. 

“  I  wish  it  with  all  my  heart,"  said  the  king.38 

Then  throwing  himself  on  his  knees,  the  Bearne — great 
champion  of  the  Huguenots — protested  before  God  that  he 
would  live  and  die  in  the  Catholic  faith,  and  that  he  re¬ 
nounced  all  heresy.  A  passage  was  with  difficulty  opened 
through  the  crowd,  and  he  was  then  led  to  the  high  altar, 
amid  the  acclamations  of  the  people.  Here  he  knelt  devoutly 
and  repeated  his  protestations.  His  unction  and  contrition 
were  mostympressive,  and  the  people,  of  course,  wept  piteously. 
The  king,  during  the  progress  of  the  ceremony,  with  hands 
clasped  together  and  adoring  the  Eucharist  with  his  eyes,  or, 
as  the  Host  was  elevated,  smiting  himself  thrice  upon  the 
breast,  was  a  model  of  passionate  devotion.49 

Afterwards  he  retired  to  a  pavilion  behind  the  altar,  where 
the  archbishop  confessed  and  absolved  him.  Then  the  Te 
Deum  sounded,  and  high  mass  was  celebrated  by  the  Bishop 
of  Nantes.  Then,  amid  acclamations  and  blessings,  and  with 
largess  to  the  crowd,  the  king  returned  to  the  monastery 
of  Saint  Denis,  where  he  dined  amid  a  multitude  of  spectators, 
who  thronged  so  thickly  around  him  that  his  dinner-table  was 
nearly  overset.  These  were  the  very  Parisians,  who,  but 

31  Fontanieu  portefeuilles,  Nos.  416,  ristie  ent  perpetuellement  les  mains 
417,  cited  by  Capefigue,  vi.  325.  jointes,les  yeux  adorant  rEucbaristie, 

38  Ibid.  De  Thou,  ubi  sup.  ayant  frappe  sa  poitrine  trois  fois  tant 

39  “  La  devotion  fut  remarquee  tres  a  relevation  de  Eucharistie  que  du 
grande  en  sa  Maj.  laquelle  pendant  la  calice.” — Font,  portefeuilles,  ubi  sup- 
consecration  et  elevation  de  l’Euclia- 


593.  4  HENRY’S  SUBMISSION  TO  THE  POPE.  241 

three  years  before,  had  been  feeding  on  rats  and  dogs  and 
dead  men's  bones,  and  the  bodies  of  their  own  children, 
rather  than  open  their  gates  to  this  same  Prince  of  Bearne. 

Now,  although  Mayenne  had  set  strong  guards  at  those 
gates,  and  had  most  strictly  prohibited  all  egress,  the  city 
was  emptied  of  its  j)opulace,  which  pressed  in  transports  of 
adoration40  around  the  man  so  lately  the  object  of  their  hate. 
Yet  few  could  seriously  believe  that  much  change  had  been 
effected  in  the  inner  soul  of  him,  whom  the  legate,  and 
the  Spaniard^  and  the  holy  father  at  Rome  still  continued 
to  denounce  as  the  vilest  of  heretics  and  the  most  infamous 
of  impostors. 

The  comedy  was  admirably  played  out  and  was  entirely  suc¬ 
cessful.  It  may  be  supposed  that  the  chief  actor  was,  how¬ 
ever,  somewhat  wearied.  In  private,  he  mocked  at  all  this 
ecclesiastical  mummery,  and  described  himself  as  heartily 
sick  of  the  business.  “  I  arrived  here  last  evening,"  he  wrote 
to  the  beautiful  Gabrielle,  “  and  was  importuned  with  ‘  God 
save  you '  till  bed-time.  In  regard  to  the  Leaguers  I  am  of  the 
order  of  St.  Thomas.  I  am  beginning  to-morrow  morning  to 
talk  to  the  bishops,  besides  those  I  told  you  about  yesterday. 
At  this  moment  of  writing  I  have  a  hundred  of  these  impor- 
tunates  on  my  shoulders,  who  will  make  me  hate  Saint  Denis 

a* 

as  much  as  you  hate  Mantes.  'Tis  to-morrow  that  I  take  the 
perilous  leap.  I  kiss  a  million  times  the  beautiful  hands  of 
my  angel  and  the  mouth  of  my  dear  mistress."  41 

A  truce — renewed  at  intervals — with  the  Leaguers  lasted 
till  the  end  of  the  year.  The  Duke  of  Nevers  was  sent  on 
special  mission  to  Rome  to  procure  the  holy  father's  con¬ 
sent  to  the  great  heretic's  reconciliation  to  the  Church,  and  he 
was  instructed  to  make  the  king's  submission  in  terms  so  whole¬ 
sale  and  so  abject  that  even  some  of  the  life-long  papists  of 
France  were  disgusted,  while  every  honest  Protestant  in  Europe 
shrank  into  himself  for  shame.42  But  Clement,  overawed  by 


40  De  Thou,  xii.  35. 

41  Mem.  de  M.  de  l’Estoile,  MS.  Cot. 
P.  No.  30,  cited  by  Capefigue,  vi.  354. 

42  “  Herewith  enclosed,”  wrote  the 

YOL.  III. — R 


English  envoy,  “your  lordship  shall 
receive  a  copy  of  the  request  which 
M.  de  Nevers  presented  to  the  pope  on 
the  king’s  behalf-by  the  sight  whereof 


242 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIX. 


* 

Philip  and  liis  ambassador,  was  deaf  to  all  the  representations  . 
of  the  French  envoy.  He  protested  that  he  would  not  believe 
in  the  sincerity  of  the  Bearne’s  conversion  unless  an  angel 
from  Heaven  should  reveal  it  to  him.  So  Nevers  left  Borne 
highly  exasperated,  and  professing  that  he  would  rather  have 
lost  a  leg,  that  he  would  rather  have  been  sewn  in  a  sack  and 
tossed  into  the  Tiber,  than  bear  back  such  a  message.  The 
pope  ordered  the  prelates  who  had  accompanied  Nevers  to 
remain  in  Borne  and  be  tried  by  the  Incpiisition  for  *  mis¬ 
prision  of  heresy,  but  the  duke  placed  them  by  his  side  and 
marched  out  of  the  Porta  del  Popolo  with  them,  threaten¬ 
ing  to  kill  any  man  who  should  attempt  to  enforce  the 
command.43 

Meantime  it  became  necessary  to  follow  up  the  St.  Denis 
comedy  with  a  still  more  exhilarating  popular  spectacle. 
The  heretic  had  been  purified,  confessed,  absolved.  It  was 
time  for  a  consecration.  But  there  was  a  difficulty.  Although 
the  fever  of  loyalty  to  the  ancient  house  of  Bourbon,  now 
redeemed  from  its  worship  of  the  false  gods,  was  spreading 
contagiously  through  the  provinces  ;  although  all  the  white 
silk  m  Lyons  had  been  cut  into  scarves  and  banners  to 
celebrate  the  reconciliation  of  the  candid  king  with  mother 
Church  ;  although  that  ancient  city  was  ablaze  with  bonfires 
and  illuminations,  while  its  streets  ran  red,  with  blood  no 
longer,  but  with  wine  ;  and  although  Madam  League,  so 
lately  the  object  of  fondest  adoration,  was  now  publicly 
burned  in  the  effigy  of  a  grizzly  hag ; 44  yet  Paris  still  held 
for  that  decrepit  beldame,  and  closed  its  gates  to  the 
Bearnese. 

The  city  of  Blieims,  too,  had  not  acknowledged  the  former 
Huguenot,  and  it  was  at  Bheims,  in  the  church  of  St.  Bemy, 


it  will  appear  to  your  lo.  liow  abjectly  j 
lie  doth  therein  debase  the  king’s 
authority  and  dignity,  wherewith  the 
most  superstitious  Catholics  here  are  so 
despited,  as  they  promise  to  procure 
the  same  to  be  disavowed  by  the  courts 
of  parliament  as  derogating  from 
the  dignity  of  the  Callican  Church.” 


Edmonds  (whb  was  secretary  to  Sir 
H.  Urnpton,  and  in  his  absence  agent 
or  charge  d’affaires)  to  Burghley,  30 
Dec.  1593.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.) 

Compare  De  Thou,  xii.  38,  and  Bor, 
B.  xxxii.  p.  151. 

43  De  Thou,  xii.  83-94. 

44  Ibid.  114. 


1593. 


THE  HOLY  OIL  AT  RHEIMS.  243 

that  the  Holy  Bottle  was  preserved.  With  what  chrism,  by 
what  prelate,  should  the  consecration  of  Henry  be  performed  ? 
Five  years  before,  the  League  had  proposed  in  the  estates  of 
Blois  to  place  among  the  fundamental  laws  of  the  kingdom 
that  no  king  should  be  considered  a  legitimate  sovereign 
whose  head  had  not  been  anointed  by  the  bishop  at  Rheims 
with  oil  from  that  holy  bottle.  But  it  was  now  decided  that 
to  ascribe  a  monopoly  of  sanctity  to  that  prelate  and  to  that 
bottle  would  be  to  make  a  schism  in  the  Church.45 

Moreover  it  was  discovered  that  there  was  a  chrism  in 
existence  still  more  efficacious  than  the  famous  oil  of  St. 
Remy.  One  hundred  and  twelve  years  before  the  baptism 
ot  Clovis,  St.  Martin  had  accidentally  tumbled  down  stairs, 
and  lay  desperately  bruised  and  at  the  point  of  death.  But* 
according  to  Sulpicius  Severus,  an  angel  had  straightway 
descended  from  heaven,  and  with  a  miraculous  balsam  had 
anointed  the  contusions  of  the  saint,  who  next  day  felt  no 
farther  inconveniences  from  his  fall.  The  balsam  had  ever 
since  been  preserved  in  the  church  of  Marmoutier  near  Tours. 
Heie,  then,  A\as  the  most  potent  of  unguents  brought  directly 
from  heaven.  To  mix  a  portion  thereof  with  the  chrism  of 
consecration  was  clearly  more  judicious  than  to  make  use  of 
the  holy  bottle,  especially  as  the  holy  bottle  was  not  within 
reach.  The  monks  of  Marmoutier  consented  to  lend  the 
sacred  phial  containing  the  famous  oil  of  St.  Martin  for  the 
grand  occasion  of  the  royal  consecration. 

Accompanied  by  a  strong  military  escort  provided  by  Giles 
de  Souvri, .  governor  of  Touraine,  a  deputation  of  friars 
brought  the  phial  to  Chartres,  where  the  consecration  was  to 
take  place.  Prayers  were  offered  up,  without  ceasing,  in  the 
monastery  during  their  absence  that  no  mishap  should  befal 
the  sacred  treasure.  When  the  monks  arrived  at  Chartres, 
four  young  barons  of  the  first  nobility  were  assigned  to  them 
as  hostages  for  the  safe  restoration  of  the  phial,  which  was 
then  borne  in  triumph  to  the  cathedral,  the  streets  through 
which  it  was  carried  being  covered  with  tapestry.  There  was 

45  Lo'TIiou,  xii.  120-129. 


244 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIX. 


a  great  ceremony,  a  splendid  consecration  ;  six  bishops,  with 
26  Feb.  mitres  on  their  heads  and  in  gala  robes,  officiating  ; 
1594.  after  which  the  king  knelt  before  the  altar  and  took 
the  customary  oath.46 

Thus  the  champion  of  the  fierce  Huguenots,  the  well- 
beloved  of  the  dead  La  Noue  and  the  living  Duplessis  Mornay, 
the  devoted  knight  of  the  heretic  Queen  Elizabeth,  the 
sworn  ally  of  the  stout  Dutch  Calvinists,  was  pompously 
reconciled  to  that  Rome  which  was  the  object  of  their  hatred 
and  their  fear. 

The  admirably  arranged  spectacles  of  the  instruction  at 
St.  Denis  and  the  consecration  at  Chartres  were  followed 
on  the  day  of  the  vernal  equinox  by  a  third  and  most  conclu¬ 
sive  ceremony. 

A  secret  arrangement  had  been  made  with  De  Cosse- 
21-22  Mar.  Brissac,  governor  of  Paris,  by  the  king,  according 
1594.  to  which  the  gates  of  Paris  were  at  last  to  be 
opened  to  him.4  The  governor  obtained  a  high  price  for  his 
services — three  hundred  thousand  livres  in  hard  cash,  thirty 
thousand  a  year  for  his  life,  and  the  truncheon  of  marshal  of 
France.48  Thus  purchased,  Brissac  made  his  preparations 
with  remarkable  secrecy  and  skill.  Envoy  Ybarra,  who  had 
scented  something  suspicious  in  the  air,  had  gone  straight  to 
the  governor  for  information,  but  the  keen  Spaniard  was 
thrown  out  by  the  governor’s  ingenuous  protestations  of 
ignorance.  The  next  morning,  March  22nd,  was  stormy 
and  rainy,  and  long  before  daylight  Ybarra,  still  uneasy 
despite  the  statements  of  Brissac,  was  wandering  about  the 
streets  of  Paris  when  he  became  the  involuntary  witness  of 
an  extraordinary  spectacle.49 

Through  the  wind  and  the  rain  came  trampling  along  the 
dark  streets  of  the  capital  a  body  of  four  thousand  troopers 
and  lansquenettes.  Many  torch-bearers  attended  on  the  pro¬ 
cession,  whose  flambeaux  threw  a  lurid  light  upon  the  scene. 

46  De  Thou,  xii.  120-129.  47  Ibid.  138-141.  48  Capefigue,  vii.  122. 

49  Ybarra  to  - ,  28  March,  1594.  (Arcli.  de  Simancas,  B.  79,  — ,  cited 

by  Capefigue,  vii.  151.) 


1593. 


HENRY’S  ENTRY  INTO  PARIS. 


245 


> 


There,  surrounded  by  the  swart  and  grizzly  bearded  visages 
of  these  strange  men-at-arms,  who  were  discharging  their 
arquebuses,  as  they  advanced  upon  any  bystanders  likely  to 
oppose  their  progress  ;  in  the  very  midst  of  this  sea  of  helmed 
heads,  the  envoy  was  enabled  to  recognise  the  martial'  figure 
of  the  Prince  of  Bearne.  Armed  to  the  teeth,  with  sword  in 
hand  and  dagger  at  side,  the  hero  of  Ivry  rode  at  last  through 
the  barriers  which  had  so  long  kept  him  from  his  capital. 
“  ’Twas  like  enchantment/'  said  Ybarra.50  The  first  Bourbon 
entered  the  city  through  the  same  gate  out  of  which  the  last 
Yalois  had,  five  years  before,  so  ignominiously  fled.  It  was 
a  midnight  surprise,  although  not  fully  accomplished  until 
near  the  dawn  of  day.  It  was  not  a  triumphal  entrance  ;  nor  did 
Henry  come  as  the  victorious  standard-bearer  of  a  great  prin¬ 
ciple.  He  had  defeated  the  League  in  many  battle-fields, 
but  the  League  still  hissed  defiance  at  him  from  the  very 
hearthstone  of  his  ancestral  palace.  He  had  now  crept,  in 
order  to  conquer,  even  lower,  than  the  League  itself ;  and 
casting  off  his  Huguenot  skin  at  last,  he  had  soared  over  the 
heads  of  all  men,  the  presiding  genius  of  the  holy  Catholic 
Church. 

Twenty-one  years  before,  he  had  entered  the  same  city  on 
the  conclusion  of  one  of  the  truces  which  had  varied  the  long 
monotony  of  the  religious  wars  of  France.  The  youthful  son 
of  Antony  Bourbon  and  Joan  of  Albret  had  then  appeared 
as  the  champion  and  the  idol  of  the  Huguenots.  In  the  same 
year  had  come  the  fatal  nuptials  with  the  bride  of  St.  Bartho¬ 
lomew,  the  first  Catholic  conversion  of  Henry  and  the  mas¬ 
sacre  at  which  the  world  still  shudders. 

Now  he  was  chief  of  the  “  Politicians/’  and  sworn  supporter 
of  the  Council  of  Trent.  Earnest  Huguenots  were  hanging 
their  heads  in  despair. 

He  represented  the  principle  of  national  unity  against 
national  dismemberment  by  domestic  treason  and  foreign 
violence.  Had  that  principle  been  his  real  inspiration,  as  it 
was  in  truth  his  sole  support,  history  might  judge  him  more 


% 


60  MS.  last  cited. 


246 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


CnAP.  XXIX. 


leniently.  Had  lie  relied  upon  it  entirely  it  might  have  been 
strong  enough  to  restore  him  to  the  throne  of  h;s  ancestors, 
without  the  famous  religious  apostacy  with  which  his  name  is 
for  ever  associated.  It  is  by  no  means  certain  that  permanent 
religious  toleration  might  not  have  been  the  result  of  his 
mounting  the  throne,  only  when  he  could  do  so  without 
renouncing  the  faith  of  his  fathers.  A  day  of  civilization 
may  come  perhaps,  sooner  or  later,  when  it  will  he  of  no 
earthly  cousequence  to  their  fellow  creatures  to  what  creed, 
what  Christian  church,  what  religious  dogma  kings  or  humbler 
individuals  may  be  partial ;  when  the  relations  between  man 
and  his  Maker  shall  he  undefiled  by  political  or  social  intru¬ 
sion.  But  the  day  will  never  come  when  it  will  he  otherwise 
than  damaging  to  public  morality  and  humiliating  to  human 
dignity  to  forswear  principle  for  a  price,  and  to  make  the 
most  awful  of  mysteries  the  subject  of  political  legerdemain 
and  theatrical  huffonery. 

The  so-called  conversion  of  the  king  marks  an  epoch  in 
human  history.  It  strengthened  the  Roman  Church  and  gave 
it  an  indefinite  renewal  of  life  ;  hut  it  sapped  the  foundations 
of  religious  faith.  The  appearance  of  Henry  the  Huguenot  as 
the  champion  of  the  Council  of  Trent  was  of  itself  too  biting 
an  epigram  not  to  he  extensively  destructive.  Whether  for 
good  or  ill,  religion  was  fast  ceasing  to  be  the  mainspring  of 
political  combinations,  the  motive  of  great  wars  and  national 
convulsions.  The  age  of  religion  was  to  be  succeeded  by  the 
age  of  commerce. 

But  the  king  was  now  on  his  throne.  All  Paris  was  in 
rapture.  There  was  Te  Deum  with  high  mass  in  Notre 
Dame,  and  the  populace  was  howling  itself  hoarse  with 
rapture  in  honour  of  him  so  lately  the  object  of  the  general 
curse.  Even  the  Sorbonne  declared  in  favour  of  the  reclaimed 
heretic,51  and  the  decision  of  those  sages  had  vast  influence 
with  less  enlightened  mortals.  There  was  nothing  left 
for  the  Duke  of  Feria  but  to  take  himself  off  and  make 
Latin  orations  in  favour  of  the  Infanta  elsewhere,  if  fit  audi- 

61  April  22,  1594.  Capefigue,  vii.  183-4. 


1594 


DEPARTURE  OF  THE  SPANISH  GARRISON. 


247 


ence  elsewhere  could  he  found.  A  week  after  the  entrance 
of  Henry,  the  Spanish  garrison  accordingly  was  28  March, 
allowed  to  leave  Paris  with  the  honours  of  war.  1594- 

aWe  marched  out  at  2  p.m.,”  wrote  the  duke  to  his  master, 
“  with  closed  ranks,  colours  displayed,  and*  drums  heating. 
First  came  the  Italians  and  then  the  Spaniards,  in  the 
midst  of  whom  was  myself  on  horseback,  with  the  Walloons 
marching  near  me.  The  Prince  of  Bearne” — it  was  a  solace 
to  the  duke’s  heart,  of  which  he  never  could  be  deprived,  to 
call  the  king  by  that  title — u  was  at  a  window  over  the  gate 
of  St.  Denis  through  which  we  took  our  departure.  He  was 
dressed  in  light  grey,  with  a  black  hat  surmounted  by  a  great 
white  feather.  Our  displayed  standards  rendered  him  no 
courteous  salute  as  we  passed.”52 

Here  was  another  solace  ! 

Thus  had  the  game  been  lost  and  won,  but  Philip  as  usual 
did  not  acknowledge  himself  beaten.  Mayenne,  too,  conti¬ 
nued  to  make  the  most  fervent  promises  to  all  that  was  left 
of  the  confederates.  He  betook  himself  to  Brussels,  and  by 
the  king’s  orders  was  courteously  received  by  the  Spanish 
authorities  in  the  Netherlands.  In  the  midst  of  the  tempest 
now  rapidly  destroying  all  rational  hopes,  Philip  still  clung 
to  Mayenne  as  to  a  spar  in  the  shipwreck.  For  the  king 
ever  possessed  the  virtue,  if  it  be  one,  of  continuing  to  believe 
himself  invincible  and  infallible,  when  he  had  been  defeated 
in  every  quarter,  and  when  his  calculations  had  all  proved 
ridiculous  mistakes. 

When  his  famous  Armada  had  been  shattered  and  sunk, 
have  we  not  seen  him  peevishly  requiring  Alexander  F arnese 
to  construct  a  new  one  immediately  and  to  proceed  therewith 
to  conquer  England  out  of  hand  ?  Was  it  to  be  expected  that 
he  would  renounce  his  conquest  of  France,  although  the  legi¬ 
timate  king  had  entered  his  capital,  had  reconciled  himself 
to  the  Church,  and  was  on  the  point  of  obtaining  forgiveness 
of  the  pope  P  If  the  Prince  of  Bearne  had  already  destroyed 
«  • 

/»9  •  •  -4 

52  Feria  to  Philip,  Arch,  de  Simancas  (Paris),  B.  78,  —  in  Capefigue,  vii.  161. 


248 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIX. 


the  Holy  League,  why  should  not  the  Duke  of  Mayenne  and 
Archduke  Ernest  make  another^  for  him,  and  so  conquer 
France  without  further  delay  ? 

But  although  it  was  still  possible  to  deceive  the  king,  who 
in  the  universality  of  his  deceptive  powers  was  so  prone  to 
delude  himself,  it  was  difficult  even  for  so  accomplished  an 
intriguer  as  Mayenne  to  hoodwink  much  longer  the  shrewd 
Spaniards  who  were  playing  so  losing  a  game  against  him. 

“  Our  affairs  in  France/'  said  Ybarra,  “are  in  such  condi¬ 
tion  that  we  are  losing  money  and  character  there,  and  are 
likely  to  lose  all  the  provinces  here,  if  things  are  not  soon 
taken  up  in  a  large  and  energetic  manner.  Money  and  troops 
are  what  is  wanted  on  a  great  scale  for  France.  The  king's 
agents  are  mightily  discontented  with  Mayenne,  and  with 
reason  ;  but  they  are  obliged  to  dissimulate  and  to  hold  their 
tongues.  We  can  send  them  no  assistance  from  these  regions, 
unless  from  down  yonder  you  send  us  the  cloth  and  the 
scissors  to  cut  it  with."53 

And  the  Archduke  Ernest,  although  he  invited  Mayenne 
to  confer  with  him  at  Brussels,  under  the  impression  that  he 
could  still  keep  him  and  the  Duke  of  Guise  from  coming  to 
an  arrangement  with  Bearne,  hardly  felt  more  confidence  in 
the  man  than  did  Feria  or  Ybarra.  “  Since  the  loss  of  Paris," 
said  Ernest,  “  I  have  had  a  letter  from  Mayenne,  in  which, 
deeply  affected  by  that  event,  he  makes  me  great  offers,  even 
to  the  last  drop  of  his  blood,  vowing  never  to  abandon  the 
cause  of  the  League.  But  of  the  intentions  and  inner  mind 
of  this  man  I  find  such  vague  information,  that  I  don't  dare 
to  expect  more  stability  from  him  than  may  be  founded  upon 
his  own  interest."54 


53  Ybarra  to  the  Secretaries,  18 
Jan.  1594.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 
Charles  Mansfeld,  too,  held  the  same 
language.  “  I  have  had  a  talk  with 
Tassis,”  he  wrote  to  the  king,  “and 
we  both  agree  that  Mayenne  has 
always  been  managing  affairs  for  his 
own  ends,  cheating  your  Majesty,  and 
this  opinion  I  have  always  held.” 

64  Ernest  to  Philip,  30  March,  1594. 


Ibid.  The  legate  had  at  last  informed 
Mayenne  that  “  the  actions  of  Navarre 
were  not  of  men,  but  the  works  of 
God’s  hand,  and  that  the  forces  of 
Spain  were  not  sufficient  to  prevent 
him  establishing  himself  absolute  king 
of  France,  and  so  it  would  be  better 
that  he  should  be  established  by  means 
of  a  general  peace.”  Sumario  de  nna 
relacion  que  liize  Ascano  Solferini, 


1594. 


DISSIMULATION  OF  MAYENNE. 


249 


And  so  Mayenne  came  to  Brussels  and  passed  three  days 
with  the  archduke.  “  He  avows  himself  ready  to  die  in  our 
cause/'  said  Ernest.  “If  your  Majesty  will' give  men  and 
money  enough,  he  will  undertake  so  to  deal  with  Bearne  that 
he  shall  not  think  himself' safe  in  his  own  house."  The  arch¬ 
duke  expressed  his  dissatisfaction  to  Mayenne  that  with  the 
money  he  had  already  received,  so  little  had  been  accom¬ 
plished,  hut  he  still  affected  a  confidence  which  he  was  far 
from  feeling,  “because,"  said  he,  “it  is  known  that  Mayenne 
is  already  treating  with  Bearne.  If  he  has  not  concluded 
those  arrangements,  it  is  because  Bearne  now  offers  him  less 
money  than  before."55  The  amount  of  dissimulation,  politely 
so-called,  practised  by  the  grandees  of  that  age,  to  say  nothing 
of  their  infinite  capacity  for  pecuniary  absorption,  makes  the 
brain  reel  and  enlarges  one's  ideas  of  the  human  faculties  as 
exerted  in  certain  directions.  It  is  doubtful  whether  plain 
Hans  Miller  or  Hans  Baker  could  have  risen  to  such  a 
level.56 

The  Duke  of  Feria  and  the  other  Spanish  envoys  had 
long  since  thoroughly  understood  the  character  of  Mayenne 
—that  great  broker  between  Philip,  the  Bearnese,  and  the 
League. 


27  April,  1594.  (Arcli  de  Simancas 
MS.)  Philip  replied  to  the  Archduke 
that  Mayenne  could  scarcely  be  acquit¬ 
ted  of  evil  intentions  in  regard  to  the 
loss  of  Paris,  but  that  nevertheless  it 
■^vas  necessary  to  affect  confidence  in 
him.  The  war  would  be  carried  on, 
and  the  king  had  so  informed  the 
pope.  The  salaries  paid  to  personages 
in  France  before  the  loss  of  Paris 
would  be  continued.  Philip  to  Ernest 
4  June,  1594.  (Arch  de  Simancas 
MS.) 

55  Relation  de  cartas  del  Archi- 
duque,  para  S.  Md  sobre  las  cosas  de 
Francia.  (Arch  de  Simancas  MS.) 

66  Even  so  late  as  the  winter  of  this 
year,  Mayenne  wrote  in  a  deeply  in¬ 
jured  tone  to  the  archduke,  expressing 
surprise  that  ‘‘pledges  should  be  de¬ 
manded  of  him,  and  suspicions  enter¬ 
tained  concerning  him,  after  all  the 
proofs  he  had  given  of  his  fidelity  and 


constancy.”  Mayenne  to  Ernest,  Sept. 
1,  1594.  (Arch  de  Simancas  MS.) 
“  He  offers  very  magnificently  to  die 
for  the  cause,”  said  Ernest,  “  but  his 
deeds  resolve  themselves  into  remote 
and  general  offers, and  into  begging  for 
ready  money  in  present  payment  for 
what  he  is  to  do  for  your  My.  in  future.” 
Ernest  to  Philip,  6  Sept.  1594.  Ibid. 
And  to  the  very  last  moment  Philip 
persisted  in  endeavouring  to  keep’ 
Mayenne  about  his  hook  by  allowing 
him  to  nibble  at  very  small  bait.  “You 
must  try  to  keep  him  dependent  on 
me,”  he  said  to  Ernest,  “  not  giving 
him  anymore  money  than  is  necessary 
to  prevent  him  from  falling  away 
entirely,  for  to  content  his  appetite 
completely  there  is  not  a  fortune  in  the 
world  that  would  suffice.”  Philip  to 
Ernest,  2  Dec.  1594.  Ibid.  Compare 
paper  of  Diego  de  Pimental,  23  Nov. 
‘1594.  Ibid. 


250 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIX. 


Feria  wrote  a  despatch  to  the  king,  denouncing  Mayenne 
An  mist  as  ^se?  pernicious  to  the  cause  of  Spain  and  of 
1594.  Catholicism,  thoroughly  self-seeking  and  vile,  and 
as  now  most  traitorous  to  the  cause  of  the  confederacy, 
engaged  in  surrendering  its  strong  places  to  the  enemy, 
and  preparing  to  go  over  to  the  Prince  of  Bearne. 

u  If,”  said  he,  u  I  were  to  recount  all  his  base  tricks,  I 
should  go  on  till  midnight,  and  perhaps  till  to-morrow  morn¬ 
ing/'57 

This  letter,  being  intercepted,  was  sent  with  great  glee  by 
Henry  IV.,  not  to  the  royal  hands  for  which  it  was  des¬ 
tined,  but  to  the  Duke  of  Mayenne.  Great  was  the  wrath 
of  ^that  injured  personage  as  he  read  such  libellous  truths. 
He  forthwith  fulminated  a  scathing  reply,  addressed  to  Philip 
II.,  in  wThich  he  denounced  the  Duke  of  Feria  as  “a  dirty 
ignoramus,  an  impudent  coward,  an  impostor,  and  a  blind 
thief;"  adding,  after  many  other  unsavoury  epithets,  “ but 
I  will  do  him  an  honour  which  he  has  not  merited,  proving 
him  a  liar  with  my  sword  ;  and  I  humbly  pray  your  Majesty 
to  grant  me  this  favour  and  to  pardon  my  just  grief,  which 
causes  me  to  depart  from  the  respect  due  to  your  Majesty 
when  I  speak  of  this  impostor  who  has  thus  wickedly  torn 
my  reputation."58 

Plis  invectives  were,  however,  much  stronger  than  his 
arguments  in  defence  of  that  tattered  reputation.  The  de¬ 
fiance  to  mortal  combat  went  for  nothing  ;  and,  in  the  course 
of  the  next  year,  the  injured  Mayenne  turned  his  back  on 
Philip  and  his  Spaniards,  and  concluded  his  bargain  with 
the  Prince  of  Bearne.  He  obtained  good  terms  :  the  govern¬ 
ment  of  Burgundy,  payment  of  his  debts,  and  a  hundred 
and  twenty  thousand  crowns  in  hard  cash/9  It  is  not  on 
record  that  the  man  of  his  word,  of  credit,  and  of  truth, 
ever  restored  a  penny  of  the  vast  sums  which  he  had  received 
from  Philip  to  carry  on  the  business  of  the  League. 

Subsequently  the  duke  came  one  very  hot  summer's-day 

57  Feria  to  Pliilip,  Aug.  1594.  MSS.  de  Colbert,  vol.  33,  in  Capefigue,  vii.  229. 

es  Capefigue,  vii.  229,  seqq.  59  Ibid.  333-5. 


1594.  TREATY  BETWEEN  HENRY  AND  MAYENNE.  251 

to  Monceaux  to  thank  the  king,  as  he  expressed  it,  for  et  de¬ 
livering  him  from  Spanish  arrogance  and  Italian  wiles;" 
and  having  got  with'  much  difficulty  upon  his  knees,  was 
allowed  to  kiss  the  royal  hand.  Henry  then  insisted  upon 
walking  about  with  him  through  the  park  at  a  prodigious 
rate,  to  show  him  all  the  improvements,  while  the  duke 
panted,  groaned,  and  perspired  in  his  vain  efforts  to  keep 
pace  with  his  new  sovereign. 

u  If  I  keep  this  fat  fellow  walking  about  in  the  sun  much 
longer,"  whispered  the  king  to  He  Bethune,  who  was  third  in 
the  party,  “  I  shall  be  sufficiently  avenged  for  all  the  mischief 
he  has  done  us." 

At  last,  when  the  duke  was  forced  to  admit  himself  to  be 
on  the  point  of  expiring  with  fatigue,  he  was  dismissed  to  the 
palace  with  orders  to  solace  himself  with  a  conple  of  bottles  of 
excellent  wine  of  Arbois,  expressly  provided  for  him  by  the 
king’s  direction.  And  this  was  all  the  punishment  ever 
inflicted  by  the  good-humoured  monarch  on  the  corpulent 
conspirator.63 

The  Duke  of  Guise  made  his  arrangements  with  the  ex- 
Huguenot  on  even  better  terms  and  at  a  still  earlier  day  ;G1 
while  Joyeuse  and  Mercoeur  stood  out  a  good  while  and 
higgled  hard  for  conditions.  “  These  people  put  such  a  high 
price  on  themselves,"  said  one  of  Henry’s  diplomatists,  “  that 
one  loses  almost  more  than  one  gains  in  buying  them.  They 
strip  and  plunder  us  even  in  our  nakedness,  and  we  are 
obliged,  in  order  to  conciliate  such  harpies,-  to  employ  all 
that  we  can  scrape  out  of  our  substance  and  our  blood.  I 
think,  however,  that  we  ought  to  gain  them  by  whatever 
means  and  at  whatever  price."62 


60  Memoires  de  Sully,  liv.  viii.  454. 
This  interview  was  in  the  spring  of 
1596,  while  Henry  was  occupied  with 
the  siege  of  La  Fere.  At  the  very 
same  time,  possibly  on  the  self-same 
day,  Mayennewas  sendingan  emissary 
to  Philip,  begging  to  have  his  allow¬ 
ance  continued,  and  the  king  left  it  to 
his  governor-general  to  decide  whether 
to  do  so  or  not.  Philip  lo  Archduke 


Albert,  24  April,  1596.  (Arch,  de 
Simancas  MS.) 

61  Capefigue,  vii.  321,  322. 

62  “Je  ne  doute  point  que  l’acco- 
modement  de  M.  de  Mayenne  ne  soit 
fait  et  j’espere  que  celuy  de  M.  de 
Joyeuse  se  fera  encore.  M.  de  Mer- 
cceur  se  rend  plus  difficile.  Ces  gens 
la  se  mettent  a  si  haut  prix  qu’on 
perd  presque  plus  qu’on  ne  gagne  a 


252 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXIX. 


Thus  Henry  IV.,  the  man  whom  so  many  contempo¬ 
rary  sages  had  for  years  been  rebuking  or  ridiculing  for 
his  persistency  in  a  hopeless  attempt  to  save  his  country  from 
dismemberment,  to  restore  legitimate  authority,  and  to  resist 
the  “  holy  confederacy”  of  domestic  traitors,  aided  by  foreign 
despots  and  sympathizers,  was  at  last  successful,  and  the 
fratricidal  war  in  France  was  approaching  its  only  possible 
conclusion. 

But,  alas  !  the  hopes  of  those  who  loved  the  reformed 
Church  as  well  as  they  loved  their  country  were  sadly  blasted 
by  the  apostasy  of  their  leader.  From  the  most  eminent 
leaders  of  the  Huguenots  there  came  a  wail,  which  must  have 
penetrated  even  to  the  well-steeled  heart  of  the  cheerful 
Gascon.  “  It  will  he  difficult/'  they  said,  “  to  efface  very  soon 
from  your  memory  the  names  of  the  men  whom  the  sentiment 
of  a  common  religion,  association  in  the  same  perils  and  per¬ 
secutions,  a  common  joy  in  the  same  deliverance,  and  the  long 
experience  of  so  many  faithful  services,  have  engraved  there 
with  a  pencil  of  diamond.  The  remembrance  of  these  things 
pursues  you  and  accompanies  you  everywhere  ;  it  interrupts 
*  your  most  important  affairs,  your  most  ardent  pleasures,  your 
most  profound  slumber,  to  represent  to  you,  as  in  a  picture, 
yourself  to  yourself :  yourself  not  as  you  are  to-day,  but  such 
as  you  were  when,  pursued  to  the  death  by  the  greatest 
princes  of  Europe,  you  went  on  conducting  to  the  harbour  of 
safety  the  little  vessel  against  which  so  many  tempests  were 
beating."63 

The  States  of  the  Dutch  republic,  where  the  affair  of 


les  aclieter.  Ils  nous  depouillent  dans 
notre  nudite  mesme,  et  il  fant  em¬ 
ployer  pour  reconcilier  ces  harpies  tout 
ce  que  nous  pouvons  tirer  de  notre 
substance  et  de  notre  sang.  Je  crois 
neantmoins  que  nous  les  devons 
gaigner  par  quelque  moyen  ^et  a 
quelque  prix  que  ce  puisse  etre.” 
Bongars.  Lettres,  pp.  331,  332. 

63  Requete  au  Roy  par  ceux  de  la 
religion,  1593.  Colbert  MSS.  vol. 
xxxi.  apud  Capefigue,  vi.  317. 

“  Je  plains  et  pleurs  au  fond  de  mon 
ame  la  gehenne  de  S.  Maj,”  wrote 


Duplessis  Mornay,  11  Aug.  1593,  to 
De  Lomenie,  “je  vous  prie  de  lui  dire 
que  s’il  lui.  prend  jamais  envie  de 
sortir  de  cette  captivite  et  spirituelle  et 
temporelle,  je  ne  puis  croistre  de  fide¬ 
lity  maisje  doubleraide  courage  .  .  . 
Ils  ne  lui  donnent  pas  la  paix  de  l’estat 
et  lui  ostent  la  paix  de  la  conscience. 

. Ils  ne  lui  rendent  point  son 

royaume,  car  c’est  a  Dieu  et  non  au 
diable  a  le  donner,  et  lui  faut  renoncer 
autant  qu’en  eulx  est  le  royaume  des 
deux.”  Mem.  et  Correspond,  de  Du¬ 
plessis  Mornay,  iv.  511. 


1594. 


INDIGNATION  OF  ELIZABETH. 


253 


Henry's  conversion  was  as  much  a  matter  of  domestic  per¬ 
sonal  interest  as  it  could  he  in  France — for  religion  up  to 
that  epoch  was  the  true  frontier  between  nation  and  nation 
—  debated  the  question  most  earnestly  while  it  was  yet 
doubtful.  It  was  proposed  to  send  a  formal  deputation  to 
the  king,  in  order  to  divert  him,  if  possible,  from  the  fatal 
step  which  he  was  about  to  take.  After  ripe  deliberation, 
however,  it  was  decided  to  leave  the  matter  “  in  the  hands  of 
God  Almighty,  and  to  pray  Him  earnestly  to  guide  the  issue 
to  His  glory  and  the  welfare  of  the  Churches." 64 

The  Queen  of  England  was,  as  might  be  supposed,  beside 
herself  with  indignation,  and,  in  consequence  of  the  great 
apostasy,  and  of  her  chronic  dissatisfaction  with  the  manner 
in  which  her  contingent  of  troops  had  been  handled  in 
France,  she  determined  to  withdraw  every  English  soldier 
from  the  support  of  Henry's  cause.  The  unfortunate  French 
ambassador  in  London  was  at  his  wits’  ends.  He  vowed 
that  he  could  not  sleep  of  nights,  and  that  the  gout  and  the 
cholic,  to  which  he  was  always  a  martyr,  were  nothing  to 
the  anguish  which  had  now  come  upon  his  soul  and  brain, 
such  as  he  had  never  suffered  since  the  bloody  day  of  St. 
Bartholomew.65 

“  Ah,  my  God  !"  said  he  to  Burghley,  u  is  it  possible 
that  her  just  clioler  has  so  suddenly  passed  over  the  great 
glory  which  she  has  acquired  by  so  many  benefits  and 
liberalities  ?" 66  But  he  persuaded  himself  that  her  majesty 
would  after  all  not  persist  in  her  fell  resolution.  To  do  so, 
he  vowed,  would  only  be  boiling  milk  for  the  French  papists, 
who  would  be  sure  to  make  the  most  of  the  occasion  in  order 
to  precipitate  the  king  into  the  abyss,  to  the  border  of  which 
they  had  already  brought  him.  He  so  dreaded  the  ire  of 
the  queen  that  he  protested  he  was  trembling  all  over  merely 
to  see  the  pen  of  his  secretary  wagging  as  he  dictated  his 
despatch.67  Nevertheless  it  was  his  terrible  duty  to  face  her 
in  her  wrath,  and  he  implored  the  lord  treasurer  to  accom- 


64  Bor,  III.  706. 

65  Beauvoir  la  Node  to  Burghley, 


24  Aug.  1593.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.) 
66  Ibid.  67  Ibid. 


254 


.  Chap.  XXIX. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 

pany  liim  and  to  shield  him  at  the  approaching  interview. 
u  Protect  me,”  he  cried,  “by  your  wisdom  from  the  ire  of 
this  great  princess  ;  for  by  the  living  God,  when  I  see  her 
enraged  against  any  person  whatever  I  wish  myself  in  Cal¬ 
cutta,  fearing  her  anger  like  death  itself.”68 

When  all  was  over,  Henry  sent  He  Morlans  as  special 
envoy  to  communicate  the  issue  to  the  Governments  of  Eng¬ 
land  and  of  Holland.  But  the  queen,  although  no  longer  so 
violent,  was  less  phlegmatic  than  the  States-General,  and 
refused  to  he  comforted.  She  subsequently  receded,  however, 
from  her  determination  to  withdraw  her  troops  from  France. 

“  Ah  !  what  grief ;  ah  !  what  regrets  ;  ah  !  what  groans,  have 
I  felt  in  my  soul,”  she  wrote,  “at  the  sound  of  the  news 
brought  to  me  by  Morlans  !  My  God  !  Is  it  possible  that 
any  wordly  respect  can  efface  the  terror  of  Divine  wrath  ? 
Can  we  by  reason  even  expect  a  good  Sequel  to  such  iniqui¬ 
tous  acts  ?  He  who  has  maintained  and  preserved  you  by 
His  mercy,  can  you  imagine  that  he  permits  you  to  walk 
alone  in  your  utmost  need  P  Tis  bad  to  do  evil  that  good 
may  come  of  it.  Meantime  I  shall  not  cease  to  put  you  in 
the  first  rank  of  my  devotions,  in  order  that  the  hands  of 
Esau  may  not  spoil  the  blessings  of  Jacob.  As  to  your  pro¬ 
mises  to  me  of  friendship  and  fidelity,  I  confess  to  have 
dearly  deserved  them,  nor  do  I  repent,  provided  you  do  not 
change  your  Father — otherwise  I  shall  be  your  bastard  sister 
by  the  father’s  side — for  I  shall  ever  love  a  natural  better 
than  an  adopted  one.  I  desire  that  God  may  guide  you  in  a 
straight  road  and  a  better  path.  Your  most  sincere  sister  in 
the  old  fashion.  As  to  the  new,  I  have  nothing  to  do  with  it. 

“  Elizabeth  B.” 69 

68  Beauvoir  la  Node  to  Burgliley,  24  Aug.  1593.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.) 

69  BibL  du  Roi,  MSS.  Colbert  in  fol.  M.  R.  D.  vol.  xvi.  fol.  329,  apud  Capc- 
figue,  vi.  352. 


1593. 


SIEGE  OF  GETRUYDENBERG. 


255 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

Prince  Maurice  lays  siege  to  Gertruydenberg  —  Advantages  of  the  new  system 
of  warfare  —  Progress  of  the  besieging  operations  —  Superiority  of  Maurice’s 
manoeuvres  —  Adventure  of  Count  Philip  of  Nassau  —  Capitulation  of 
Gertruydenberg  —  Mutiny  among  the  Spanish  troops  —  Attempt  of  Ver- 
dugo  to  retake  Coeworden —  Suspicions  of  treason  in  the  English  garrison 
at  Ostend  —  Letter  of  Queen  Elizabeth  to  Sir  Edward  Norris  on  the  sub¬ 
ject  —  Second  attempt  on  Coeworden  —  Assault  on  Groningen  by  Maurice 

—  Second  adventure  of  Philip,  of  Nassau  —  Narrow  escape  of  Prince  Mau¬ 
rice —  Surrender  of  Groningen  —  Particulars  of  the  siege  —  Question  of 
religious  toleration  —  Progress  of  the  United  Netherlands —  Condition  of 
the  “  obedient  ”  Netherlands  —  Incompetency  of  Peter  Mansfeld  as 
Governor  —  Archduke  Ernest,  the  successor  of  Farnese —  Difficulties  of  his 
position — His  unpopularity  —  Great  achievements  of  the  republicans  — 
Triumphal  entry  of  Ernest  into  Brussels  and  Antwerp  —  Magnificence  of 
the  spectacle  —  Disaffection  of  the  Spanish  troops  —  Great  military  rebel¬ 
lion  —  Philip’s  proposal  to  destroy  the  English  fleet  —  His  assassination 
plans  —  Plot  to  poison  Queen  Elizabeth  —  Conspiracies  against  Prince 
Maurice  —  Futile  attempts  at  negociation  —  Proposal  of  a  marriage  between 
Henry  and  the  Infanta  —  Secret  mission  from  Henry  to  the  King  of  Spain 

—  Special  dispatch  to  England  and  the  States  —  Henry  obtains  further 
aid  from  Queen  Elizabeth  and  the  States-Council — Anxiety  of  the  Protestant 
countries  to  bring  about  a  war  with  Spain  —  Aspect  of  affairs  at  the  close 
of  the  year  1594. 

While  Philip's  world-empire  seemed  in  one  direction  to  "be 
so  rapidly  fading  into  cloudland  there  were  substantial  pos¬ 
sessions  of  the  Spanish  crown  which  had  been  neglected  in 
Brabant  and  Friesland. 

Two  very  important  cities  still  held  for  the  King  of 
Spain  within  the  territories  of  what  could  now  be  fairly  consi¬ 
dered  the  United  Dutch  Republic — St.  Gertruydenberg  and 
Groningen. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1593,  Maurice  had  completed  his 
preparations  for  a  siege,  and  on  the  24th  March  appeared 
before  Gertruydenberg. 

It  was  a  stately,  ancient  city,  important  for  its  wealth,  its 
strength,  and  especially  for. its  position.  For  without  its  pos- 


256 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXX. 


session  even  the  province  of  Holland  could  hardly  consider 
itself  mistress  of  its  own  little  domains.  It  was  seated  on  the 
ancient  Meuse,  swollen  as  it  approached  the  sea  almost  to 
the  dimension  of  a  gulf,  while  from  the  south  another  stream, 
called  the  Donge,  very  brief  in  its  course,  but  with  consider¬ 
able  depth  of  water,  came  to  mingle  itself  with  the  Meuse, 
exactly  under  the  walls  of  the  city. 

The  site  of  the  place  was  so  low  that  it  was  almost  hidden 
and  protected  by  its  surrounding  dykes.  These  afforded 
means  of  fortification,  which  had  been  well  improved.  Both 
by  nature  and  art  the  city  was  one  of  the  strongholds  of  the 
Netherlands. 

Maurice  had  given  the  world  a  lesson  in  the  beleaguering 
science  at  the  siege  of  Steenwyk,  such  as  had  never  before 
been  dreamt  of ;  but  he  was  resolved  that  the  operations 
before  Gfertruydenberg  should  constitute  a  masterpiece. 

Nothing  could  be  more  beautiful  as  a  production  of  mili¬ 
tary  art,  nothing,  to  the  general  reader,  more  insipid  than 
its  details. 

On  the  land  side,Hohenkfs  headquarters  were  at  Ramsdonck, 
a  village  about  a  German  mile  to  the  east  of  Gertruydenberg. 
Maurice  himself  was  established  on  the  west  side  of  the  city.1 
Two  bridges  constructed  across  the  Donge  facilitated  the  com¬ 
munications  between  the  two  camps,  while  great  quantities  of 
planks  and  brush  were  laid  down  across  the  swampy  roads  to 
make  them  passable  for  waggon- trains  and  artillery.  The 
first  care  of  the  young  general,  whose  force  was  not  more 
than  twenty  thousand  men,  was  to  protect  himself  rather  than 
to  assail  the  town. 

His  lines  extended  many  miles  in  a  circuit  around  the 
place,  and  his  forts,  breastworks,  and  trenches  were  very 


numerous. 

The  river  was  made  use  of  as  a  natural  and  almost  impass¬ 
able  ditch  of  defence,  and  windmills  were  freely  employed 
to  pump  water  into  the  shallows  in  one  direction,  while 


1  See,  for  the  details  of  this  remark¬ 
able  siege,  Meteren,  xvi.  391,  322. 
Bor,  III.  690-698.  Reyd,  x.  198-205. 


Mulder’s  Duyck,  194-245,  especially. 
Bentivoglio,  P.  III.  lib.  i.  pp.  383—387. 
Coloma,  vi.  119-122. 


1593. 


WORK  OF  THE  BESIEGING  ARMY. 


257 


in  others  the  outer  fields,  in  quarters  whence  a  relieving  force 
might  be  expected,  were  turned  into  lakes  by  the  same 
machinery.  Farther  outside,  a  system  of  palisade  work  of 
caltrops  and  man-traps — sometimes  in  the  slang  of  the  day 
called  Turkish  ambassadors- — made  the  country  for  miles 
around  impenetrable  or  very  disagreeable  to  cavalry.2  In  a 
shorter  interval  than  would  have  seemed  possible,  the  battle¬ 
ments  and  fortifications  of  the  besieging  army  had  risen  like 
an  exhalation  out  of  the  morass.  The  city  of  Gertruydenberg 
was  encompassed  by  another  city  as  extensive  and  apparently 
as  impregnable  as  itself.  Then,  for  the  first  time  in  that  age, 
men  thoroughly  learned  the  meaning  of  that  potent  imple¬ 
ment  the  spade. 

Three  thousand  pioneers  worked  night  and  day  with  pick- 
axe  and  shovel.  The  soldiers  liked  the  business  ;  for  every 
man  so  employed  received  his  ten  stivers  a  day  additional 
wages,  punctually  paid,  and  felt  moreover  that  every  stroke 
was  bringing  the  work  nearer  to  its  conclusion. 

The  Spaniards  no  longer  railed  at.  Maurice  as  a  hedger 
and  ditcher.  When  he  had  succeeded  in  bringing  a  hundred 
great  guns  to  bear  upon  the  beleaguered  city  they  likewise 
ceased  to  sneer  at  heavy  artillery. 

The  Kartowen  and  half  Kartowen  were  no  longer  considered 
“  espanta  vellacos.” 

Meantime,  from  all  the  country  round,  the  peasants  flocked 
within  the  lines.  Nowhere  in  Europe  were  provisions  so 
plentiful  and  cheap  as  in  the  Dutch  camp.  Nowhere  was  a 
readier  market  for  agricultural  products,  prompter  payment, 
or  more  perfect  security  for  the  life  and  property  of  non-com¬ 
batants.  Not  so  much  as  a  hen’s  egg  was  taken  unlawfully.0’ 
The  country  people  found  themselves  more  at  ease  within 
Maurice's  lines  than  Avithin  any  other  part  of  the  provinces, 
obedient  or  revolted.  They  ploughed  and  sowed  and  reaped 
at  their  pleasure,  and  no  more  striking  example  was  ever 
afforded  of  the  humanizing  effect  of  science  upon  the 
barbarism  of  war,  than  in  this  siege  of  Gertruydenberg.4 

2  Reyd,  ubi  sup.  3  Duyck,  201.  4  Meteren,  Bor,  Reyd,  ubi  sup. 

VOL.  III. — S 


258 


Chap.  XXX. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Certainly  it  was  the  intention  of  the  prince  to  take  his  city, 
and  when  he  fought  the  enemy  it  was  his  object  to  kill ;  hut, 
as  compared  with  the  bloody  work  which  Alva,  and  Romero, 
and  Requesens,  and  so  many  others  had  done  in  those  doomed 
provinces,  such  war-making  as  this  seemed  almost  like  an 
institution  for  beneficent  and  charitable  purposes. 

Visitors  from  the  neighbourhood,  from  other  provinces, 
from  foreign  countries,  came  to  witness  the  extraordinary 
spectacle,  and  foreign  generals  repaired  to  the  camp  of 
Maurice  to  take  practical  lessons  in  the  new  art  of  war.5 

Old  Peter  Ernest  Mansfeld,  who  was  nominal  governor  of 
the  Spanish  Netherlands  since  the  death  of  Farnese,  rubbed 
his  eyes  and  stared  aghast  when  the  completeness  of  the  pre¬ 
parations  for  reducing  the  city  at  last  broke  in  upon  his  mind. 
Count  Fuentes  was  the  true  and  confidential  regent  however 
until  the  destined  successor  to  Parma  should  arrive  ;  but 
Fuentes,  although  he  had  considerable  genius  for  assassina¬ 
tion,  as  will  hereafter  appear,  and  was  an  experienced  and 
able  commander  of  the  old-fashioned  school,  was  no  match 
for  Maurice  in  the  scientific  combinations  on  which  the  new 
system  was  founded. 

In  vain  did  the  superannuated  P eter  call  aloud  upon  his  son 
and  governor,  Count  Charles,  to  assist  him  in  this  dire 
dilemma.  That  artillery  general  had  gone  with  a  handful 
of  Germans,  Walloons,  and  other  obedient  Netherlanders 
too  fbw  to  accomplish  anything  abroad,  too  many  to  be  spared 
from  the  provinces — to  besiege  Noyon  in  France.6  But  what 
signified  the  winning  or  losing  of  such  a  place  as  Noyon  at 
exactly  the  moment  when  the  Prince  of  Bearne,  assisted 
by  the  able  generalship’  of  the  Archbishop  of  Bourges,  had 


5  “Un  des  mes  amis,”  wrote  Bongars, 
envoy  of  Henry  IV.,  “  qui  est  alle  dans 
le  camp  des  Hollandois  par  la  seule 
curiosite  de1  le  voir,  m’a  ecrit  qu’il  n’a 
jamais  ni  vu  ni  entendu  parler  d’uiie 
armee  campee  ou  il  parut  plus  de  cou¬ 
rage  et  en  meme  temps  plus  de  disci¬ 
pline.  II  dit  qued.es  fortifications  sont 
si  elevees  qu’elles  egalent  les  ouvrages 
des  anciens  Domains  et  que  tout  s’y 


conduit  avec  tant  d’ordre  et  de  silence 
qu’on  croirait  plutot  voir  l’etat  pais- 
ible  d’une  ville  que  se  conserve  l’etat 
par  le  soin  de  ses  magistrats  et  par 
1’obeissance  de  ses  citoyens  quune 
troupe  confuse  de  gens  armes.  Let- 
tres,  Go,  p.  223. 

6  He  bad  but  4300  foot  and  800 
horse.  Charles  Mansfeld  to  Fuentes,  5 
April,  1593.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 


1593. 


SKIRMISH  NEAR  TURNHOUT. 


259 


just  executed  those  famous  flanking  movements  in  the 
churches  of  St.  Denis  and  Chartres,  by  which  the  world- 
empire  had  been  effectually  shattered,  and  Philip  and  the 
Pope  completely  out-manoeuvred. 

Better  that  the  five  thousand  fighters  under  Charles  Mans- 
feld  had  been  around  Gertruydenberg.  His  aged  father  did 
what  he  could.  As  many  men  as  could  be  spared  from  the 
garrison  of  Antwerp  and  its  neighbourhood  were  collected, 
but  the  Spaniards  were  reluctant  to  march,  except  under  old 
Mondragon.  That  hero,  who  had  done  much  of  the  hardest 
work,  and  had  fought  in  most  of  the  battles  of  the  cen¬ 
tury,  was  nearly  as  old  as  the  century.  Being  now  turned 
of  ninety,  he  thought  best  to  keep  house  in  Antwerp  Castle. 
Accordingly  twelve  thousand  foot  and  three  thousand  horse 
took  the  field  under  the  more  youthful  Peter  Ernest.7  But 
Peter  Ernest,  when  his  son  was  not  there  to  superintend  his 
operations,  was  nothing  but  a  testy  octogenarian,  while  the 
two  together  were  not  equal  to  the  little  finger  of  Far- 
nese,  whom  Philip  would  have  displaced,  had  he  not  fortu¬ 
nately  died. 

u  Nothing  is  to  be  expected  out  of  this  place  but  toads  and 
poison/’  wrote  Ybarra  in  infinite  disgust  to  the  two  secretaries 
of  state  at  Madrid.  u  I  have  done  my  best  to  induce  Fuentes 
to  accept  that  which  the  patent  secured  him,  and  Count  Peter 
is  complaining  that  Fuentes  showed  him  the  patent  so  late 
only  to  play  him  a  trick.  There  is  a  rascally  pack  of 
meddlers  here,  and  the  worst  of  them  all  are  the  women,  whom 
I  particularly  give  to  the  devil.  There  is  no  end  to  the 
squabbles  as  to  who  shall  take  the  lead  in  relieving  Gertruy¬ 
denberg.”  8 

Mansfeld  at  last  came  ponderously  up  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Turnhout.  There  was  a  brilliant  little  skirmish,  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  this  place,  in  which  a  hundred  and  fifty 


7  Relacion  de  la  gente  effectiva  de 
S.  Md.  para  el  socorro  de  Sl  Gertruy¬ 
denberg.  With  levies  expected,  the 
number  is  stated  at  13,000  foot  and 
2600  horse,  besides  the  forces  under 


Verdugo.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 

8  Ybarra  ,  to  Don  Cristoval  Mora  and 
Don  Juan  Idiaquez,  from  Antwerp,  22 
May,  1593.  (Ibid.) 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXX. 


260 


Dutch  cavalry  under  the  famous  brothers  Bax  defeated  four 
hundred  picked  lancers  of  Spain  and  Italy.9  But  Mansfeld 
could  get  nothing  hut  skirmishes.  In  vain  he  plunged  about 
among  the  caltrops  and  man-traps.  In  vain  he  knocked  at 
the  fortifications  of  Hohenlo  on  the  east  and  of  Maurice  on 
the  west.  He  found  them  impracticable,  impregnable, 
obdurate.  It  was  Maurice’s  intention  to  take  his  town  at  as 
small  sacrifice  of  life  as  possible.  A  trumpet  was  sent  on 
some  trifling  business  to  Mansfeld,  in  reply  to  a  communica¬ 
tion  made  by  the  general  to  Maurice. 

u  Why  does  your  master,”  said  the  choleric  veteran  to  the 
trumpeter,  “  why  does  Prince  Maurice,  being  a  lusty  young 
commander  as  he  is,  not  come  out  of  his  trenches  into  the 
open  field  and  fight  me  like  a  man,  where  honour  and  fame 
await  him  P  ” 

“  Because  my  master,”  answered  the  trumpeter,  “  means  to 
live  to  be  a  lusty  old  commander  like  your  excellency,  and 
sees  no  reason  to-day  to  give  you  an  advantage.” 

At  this  the  bystanders  laughed,  rather  at  the  expense  of 
the  veteran.10 

Meantime  there  were  not  many  incidents  within  the  lines  or 
within  the  city  to  vary  the  monotony  of  the  scientific  siege. 

On  the  land  side,  as  has  been  seen,  the  city  was  enclosed 
and  built  out  of  human  sight  by  another  Gertruydenberg. 
On  the  wide  estuary  of  the  Meuse,  a  chain  of  war  ships 
encircled  the  sea-front,  in  shape  of  a  half  moon,  lying  so  close 
to  each  other  that  it  was  scarcely  possible  even  for  a  mes¬ 
senger  to  swim  out  of  a  dark  night. 

The  hardy  adventurers  who  attempted  that  feat  with  tidings 
of  despair  were  almost  invariably  captured. 

This  blockading  fleet  took  regular  part  in  the  daily 
cannonade  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  artillery  practice 
from  the  land-batteries  of  Maurice  and  Hohenlo  was  more 
perfect  than  anything  ever  known  before  in  the  Netherlands 
or  France. 


9  Bor,  Meteren,  Reyd,  ubi  supra.  Duyck,  214,  215.  Compare  Coloma, 
Bentivoglio,  ubi  sup.  10  Meteren,  ubi  sup.  322. 


1593. 


COUNT  PHILIP’S  ADVENTURE. 


261 


And  the  result  was  that  in  the  course  of  the  cannonade, 
which  lasted  .nearly  ninety  days,  not  more  than  four  houses 
in  the  city  escaped  injury.  The  approaches  were  brought, 
every  hour,  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  walls.  With  subter¬ 
ranean  lines  converging  in  the  form  of  the  letter  Y,  the  prince 
had  gradually  burrowed  his  way  beneath  the  principal 
bastion.11 

Hohenlo,  representative  of  the  older  school  of  strategy,  had 
on  one  occasion  ventured  to  resist  the  authority  of  the  com¬ 
mander-in-chief.  He  had  constructed  a  fort  at  Ramsdonck. 
Maurice  then  commanded  the  erection  of  another,  fifteen 
hundred  yards  farther  back.  It  w&s  as  much  a  part  of  his 
purpose  to  defend  himself  against  the  attempts  of  Mansfield’s 
relieving  force,  as  to.  go  forward  against  the  city.  Hohenlo 
objected  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  sustain  himself  against 
a  sudden  attack  in  so  isolated  a  position.  Maurice  insisted. 
In  the  midst  of  the  altercation  Hohenlo  called  to  the  men 
engaged  in  throwing  up  the  new  fortifications  :  “  Here,  you 
captains  and  soldiers/’  he  cried,  “  you  are  delivered  up  here 
to  be  butchered.  You  may  drop  work  and  follow  me  to  the 
old  fort.” 

“  And  I  swear  to  you,”  said  Maurice  quietly,  “  that  the 
first  man  who  moves  from  this  spot  .shall  be  hanged.” 

Ho  one  moved.’  The  fort  was  completed  and  held*  to  the 
end  ;  Hohenlo  sulkily  acquiescing  in  the  superiority  which 
this  stripling — his  former  pupil — had  at  last  vindicated  over 
all  old-fashioned  men-at-arms.12 

From  the  same  cause  which  was  apt  to  render  Hohenlo’s 
services  inefficient,  the  prince  was  apt  to  suffer  inconvenience 
m  the  persons  placed  in  still  nearer  relation  to  himself. 
Count  Philip  of  Nassau,  brother  of  the  wise  and  valiant  Lewis 
William,  had  already  done  much  brilliant  campaigning 
against  the  Spaniards  both  in  France  and  the  provinces. 
Unluckily,  he  was  not  only  a  desperate  fighter  but  a  mighty 
drinker,  and  one  day,  after  a  dinner-party  and  potent  carouse 
at  Colonel  Brederode’s  quarters,  he  thought  proper,  in 

12  Reyd,  ubi  sup.  203. 


11  Bor,  Meteren  Reyd,  Duyck,  ubi  sup. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXX. 


262 


doublet  and  hose,  without  armour  of  any  kind,  to  mount  his 
horse,  in  order  to  take  a  solitary  survey  of  the  qnemy's  works. 
Not  satisfied  with  this  piece  of  reconnoitring — which  he 
effected  with  much  tipsy  gravity,  but  probably  without  de¬ 
riving  any  information  likely  to  be  of  value  to  the  command¬ 
ing  general — he  then  'proceeded  to  charge  in  person  a  distant 
battery.  The  deed  was  not  commendable  in  a  military  point 
of  view.  A  fire  was  opened  upon  him  at  long  range  so  soon 
as  he  was  discovered,  and  at  the  same  time  the  sergeant- 
major  of  his  regiment  and  an  equerry  of  Prince  Maurice 
started  in  pursuit,  determined  to  bring  him  off  if  possible, 
before  his  life  had  been  thus  absurdly  sacrificed.  F ortunately 
for  him  they  came  to  the  rescue  in  time,  pulled  him  from 
his  horse,  and  succeeded  in  bringing  him  away  unharmed. 
The  sargeant-major,  however,  Sinisky  by  name,  while  thus 
occupied  in  preserving  the  count's  life,  was  badly  wounded  in 
the  leg  by  a  musket-shot  from  the  fort ;  which  casualty  was 
the  only  result  of  this  after-dinner  assault.13 

As  the  siege  proceeded,  and  as  the  hopes  of  relief  died 
away,  great  confusion  began  to  reign  within  the  city.  The 
1  June,  garrison,  originally  of  a  thousand  veterans,  besides 
1593.  burgher  militia,  had  been  much  diminished.  Two 
commandants  of  the  place,  one  after  another,  had  lost  their 
lives.  On  the  1st  of  June,  Governor  De  Masieres,  Captain 
Mongyn,  the  father-confessor  of  the  garrison,  and  two  soldiers, 
being  on  the  top  of  the  great  church  tower  taking  observa¬ 
tions,  were  all  brought  down  with  one  cannon-shot.14  Thus 
the  uses  of  artillery  were  again  proved  to  be  something  more 
than  to  scare  cowards. 

The  final  result  seemed  to  have  been  brought  about  almost 
24  June,  by  accident,  if  accident  could  be  admitted  as  a 
1593.  factor  in  such  accurate  calculations  as  those  of 
Maurice.  On  the  24th  June  Captains  Haen  and  Bievry 
were  relieving  watch  in  the  trenches  near  the  great  north 
ravelin  of  the  town — a  bulwark  which  had  already  been 
much  undermined  from  below  and  weakened  above.  Being 

13  Duyck,  180.  Compare  Bor,  Meteren,  Reyd,  ubi  sup.  14  Duyck. 


1593.  CAPITULATION  OF  GERTRUYDENBERG.  263 

adventurous  officers,  it  occurred  to  them  suddenly  to  scale 
the  wall  of  the  fort  and  reconnoitre  what  was  going  on 
in  the  town.  It  was  hardly  probable  that  they  would 
come  hack  alive  from  the  expedition,  hut  they  nevertheless 
threw  some  planks  across  the  ditch,  and  taking  a  few 
soldiers  with  them,  climbed  cautiously  up.  Somewhat  to 
his  own  surprise,  still  more  to  that  of  the  Spanish  sen¬ 
tinels,  Bievry  in  a  few  minutes  found  himself  within  the 
ravelin.  He  was  closely  followed  hy  Captain  Haen,  Captain 
Kalf,  and  hy  half  a  company  of  soldiers.  The  alarm  was 
given.  There  was  a  fierce  hand-to-hand  struggle.  Sixteen 
of  the  hold  stormers  fell,  and  nine  of  the  garrison  of  the 
fort.  The  rest  fled  into  the  city.  The  governor  of  the 
place,  Captain  Gysant,  rushing  to  the  rescue  without  stay¬ 
ing  to  put  on  his  armour,  was  killed.  Count  Solms,  on  the 
other  hand,  came  from  the  besieging  camp  into  the  ravelin 
to  investigate  the  sudden  uproar.  To  his  profound  astonish¬ 
ment  he  was  met  there,  after  a  brief  interval,  hy  a  deputation 
from  the  city,  asking  for  terms  of  surrender.  The  envoys 
had  already  been  for  some  little  time  looking  in  vain  for  a 
responsible  person  with  whom  to  treat.  When  Maurice  was 
informed  of  the  propositions  he  thought  it  at  first  a  trick  ;  for 
he  had  known  nothing,  of  the  little  adventure  of  the  three 
captains.  Soon  afterwards  he  came  into  a  battery  whither 
the  deputies  had  been  brought,  and  the  terms  of  capitulation 
were  soon  agreed  upon.15 

Next  day  the  garrison  were  allowed  to  go  out  with  side- 
arms  and  personal  baggage,  and  fifty  waggons  were  25  June, 
lent  them  by  the  victor  to  bring  their  wounded  men  1593. 
to  Antwerp. 

Thus  was  Gertruydenberg  surrendered  in  the  very  face  of 
Peter  Mansfeld,  who  only  became  aware  of  the  fact  by  the 
salvos  of  artillery  fired  in  honour  of  the  triumph,  and  by  the 
blaze  of  illumination  which  broke  forth  over  camp  and  city. 

The  sudden  result  was  an  .illustration  of  the  prince's  per¬ 
fect  arrangements.  When  Maurice  rode  into  the  town,  he 
35  Duyck,  234,  seqq.  Meteren,  Bor,  Reyd,  ubi  sup. 


264 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXX. 


found  it  strong  enough  and  sufficiently  well  provisioned  to 
have  held  out  many  a  long  day.  But  it  had  been  demon¬ 
strated  to  the  besieged  that  relief  was  impossible,  and  that 
the  surrender  on  one  day  or  another,  after  the  siege  operations 
should  be  brought  to  their  close,  was  certain.  The  inexor¬ 
able  genius  of  the  commander — skilled  in  a  science  which  to 
the  coarser  war-makers  of  that  age  seemed  almost  super¬ 
human — hovered  above  them  like  a  fate.  It  was  as  well  to 
succumb  on  the  24th  June  as  to  wait  till  the  24th  July.16 

Moreover  the  great  sustaining  principle — resistance  to  the 
foreigner — which  had  inspired  the  deeds  of  daring,  the 
wonders  of  endurance,  in  the  Dutch  cities  beleaguered  so 
remorselessly  by  the  Spaniard  twenty  years  earlier  in  the 
century,  was  wanting. 

In  surrendering  to  the  born  Netherlander — the  heroic 
chieftain  of  the  illustrious  house  of  Nassau — these  Nether- 
landers  were  neither  sullying  their  flag  nor  injuring  their 
country.  Enough  had  been  done  for  military  honour  in 
the  gallant  resistance,  in  which  a  large  portion  of  the 
garrison  had  fallen.  Nor  was  that  religious  sujierstition  so 
active  within  the  city,  which  three  years  before  had  made 
miracles  possible  in  Paris  when  a  heretic  sovereign  was  to  be 
defied  by  his  own  subjects.  It  was  known  that  even  if  the 
public  ceremonies  of  the  Catholic  Church  were  likely  to  be 
suspended  for  a  time  after  the  surrender,  at  least  the  rights 
of  individual  conscience  and  private  worship  within  individual 


16  Thus  modestly  did  William  Lewis, 
to  whom  so  large  a  part  of  the  glory 
of  all  these  achievements  belongs,  ex¬ 
press  himself  in  a  congratulatory  letter 
to  his  cousin  Maurice  : — u  J’estime  de 
ne  faire  que  mon  devoir  de  congratuler 
V.  E.  d’une  victoire  si  signalee,  en  ce 
qu’avez  faict  une  preuve  tant  remar- 
quable,  que  la  conduite  et  travail  en  la 
guerre  domine  la  force,  dont  ce  siege 
peut  estre  nomme  a  droict  la  seconde 
Alexia  et  une  grande  restauration  en 
partie  de  la  vieille  art  et  science  mili- 
taire,  laquelle  a  este  mocquee,  voire  n’a 
sceu  estre  comprehendee,  ou  pour  le 
moms  practiquee  des  plus  grands  capi- 


taines  modernes ;  par  ou  l’ennemi  a  ce 
coup  plus  perdu  de  sa  reputation  que 
regu  de  dommage*  par*  les  autres 
plusieurs  belles  et  grandes  victoires  ; 
tellement  que  si  Messieurs  les  Etats 
seconderoient  en  forces  ce  que  la 
guerre  a  augmente  en  experience  a 
bon  droit,  se  pourroit  on  promettre  une 
bonne  et  lieureuse  issue  de  laquelle  je 
prie  Dieu  de  faire  a  ce  pauvre  Pays  Bas 
une  fois  jouir,  et  a  votre  Exce.  l’lion- 
neur  en  recompense  de  ses  genereux  et 
he  roicque  desseings  et  grands  tra- 
vaulx  de  bientost  triumpher.” — Groen 
v.  Prinsterer,  Archives  II.  S.  i.  245. 


1593. 


EFFECTS  OF  THE  SURRENDER. 


265 


households  would  he  tolerated,  and  there  was  no  papal  legate 
with  fiery  eloquence  persuading  a  city  full  of  heroic  dupes 
that  it  was  more  virtuous  for  men  or  women  to  eat  their  own 
children  than  to  forego  one  high  mass,  or  to  wink  at  a  single 
conventicle. 

After  all,  it  was  no  such  hitter  hardship  for  the  citizens  of 
Gertruydenberg  to  participate  in  the  prosperity  of  the  rising 
and  thriving  young  republic,  and  to  enjoy  those  municipal  and 
national  liberties  which  her  sister  cities  had  found  so  sweet. 

Nothing:  could  he  calmer  or  more  reasonable  than  such  a 
triumph,  nothing  less  humiliating  or  less  disastrous  than  such 
a  surrender. 

The  problem  was  solved,  the  demonstration  was  made.  To 
open"  their  gates  to  the  soldiers  of  the  Union  was  not  to  admit 
the  hordes  of  a  Spanish  commander  with  the  avenging  furies 
of  murder,  pillage,  rape,  which  ever  followed  in  their  train 
over  the  breach  of  a  captured  city. 

To  an  enemy  bated  or  dreaded  to  the  uttermost  mortal 
capacity,  that  well-fortified  and  opulent  city  might  have  held  out 
for  months,  and  only  when  the  arms  and  the  fraud  of  the  foe 
without,  and  of  famine  within,  had  done  their  work,  could  it 
have  bowed  its  head  to  the  conqueror,  and  submitted  to  the 
ineffable  tortures  which  would  be  the  necessary  punishment 
of  its  courage. 

Four  thousand  shots  had  been  fired  from  the  siege-guns 
upon  the  city,  and  three  hundred  upon  the  relieving  force. 

The  besieging  army  numbered  in  all  nine  thousand  one 
hundred  and  fifty  men  of  all  arms,  and  they  lost  during  the 
eighty-five  days'  siege  three  hundred  killed  and  four  hundred 
wounded.17 

After  the  conclusion  of  these  operations,  and  the  thorough 
remodelling  of  the  municipal  government  of  the  important 
city  thus  regained  to  the  republic,  Maurice  occupied  himself 
with  recruiting  and  refreshing  his  somewhat  exhausted  little 
army.  On  the  other  hand,  old  Count  Mansfeld,  dissatis- 

17  Duyck,  241.  There  were  six  hundred  and  fifty  English  and  seven  hundred 
German  riders  in  Maurice’s  camp.  The  rest  of  his  army  were  Netherlanders. 


266 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXX. 


fled  with  the  impotent  conclusion  to  his  attempts,  retired 
to  Brussels  to  he  much  taunted  by  the  insolent  F uentes.  He 
at  least  escaped  very  violent  censure  on  the  part  of  his  son 
Charles,  for  that  general,  after  his  superfluous  conquest  of 
Noyon,  while  returning  towards  the  Netherlands,  far  too 
tardily  to  succour  Gertruydenberg,  had  been  paralyzed  in  all 
his  movements  by  a  very  extensive  mutiny  which  broke  out 
among  the  Spanish  troops  in  the  province  of  Artois.18  The 
disorder  went  through  all  its  regular  forms.  A  town  was  taken, 
an  Eletto  was  appointed.  The  country-side  was  black-mailed 
or  plundered,  and  the  rebellion  lasted  some  thirteen  months. 
Before  it  was  concluded  there  was  another  similar  outbreak 
among  the  Italians,  together  with  the  Walloons  and  other 
obedient  Netherlanders  in  Hainault,  who  obliged  ihe  city  of 
Mons  to  collect  nine  hundred  florins  a  day  for  them.19  The 
consequence  of  these  military  rebellions  was  to  render  the 
Spanish  crown  almost  powerless  during  the  whole  year,  within 
the  provinces  nominally  subject  to  its  sway.  The  cause — as 
always — was  the  non-payment  of  these  veterans’  wages,  year 
after  year.  It  was  impossible  for  Philip,  with  all  the  wealth 
of  the  Indies  and  Mexico  pouring  through  the  Danaid  sieve 
of  the  Holy  League  in  France,  to  find  the  necessary  funds  to 
save  the  bronzed  and  war-worn  instruments  of  his  crimes  in 
the  Netherlands  from  starving  and  from  revolt. 

Meantime  there  was  much  desultory  campaigning  in  Fries¬ 
land.  Verdugo  and  Frederic  van  den  Berg  picked  up  a  few 
cities  and  strong  places  which  had  thrown  off  their  allegiance 
September,  to  the  king — Auerzyl,  Schlochteren,  Winschoten, 
1593.  Wedde,  Ootmarzum — and  invested  the  much  more 

important  town  of  Coe worden,  which  Maurice  had  so  recently 
reduced  to  the  authority  of  the  Union.  Verdugo’s  force  was 
insufficient,  however,  and  he  had  neither  munitions  nor  pro¬ 
visions  for  a  long  siege.  Winter  was  coming  on  ;  and  the 
States,  aware  that  he  would  soon  be  obliged  to  retire  from 
before  the  well-garrisoned  and  fortified  place,  thought  it  un¬ 
necessary  to  interfere  with  him.  After  a  very  brief  demon- 

18  Meteren,  xvi.  323.  Coloma,  vi.  123v0.  Bor,  III.  710.  19  Meteren,  xvi.  323. 


1593  SUSPICIONS  OP  TREASON.  267 

sfcration  the  Portuguese  veteran  was  obliged  to  raise  the 
siege.20 

There  were  also  certain  vague  attempts  made  by  the 
enemy  to  re-possess  himself  of  those  most  important  seaports 
which  had  been  pledged  to  the  English  queen.  On  a  previous 
page  the  anxiety  has  been  indicated  with  which  Sir  Robert 
Sydney  regarded  the  withdrawal  of  the  English  troops  in  the 
Netherlands  for  the  sake  of  assisting  the  French  king.  This 
palpable  breach  of  the  treaty  had  necessarily  weakened 
England's  hold  on  the  affections  of  the  Netherlander s,  and 

o  y 

awakened  dark  suspicions  that  treason  might  be  impending 
at  Flushing  or  Ostend.  The  suspicions  were  unjust — so 
far  as  the  governors  of  those  places  were  concerned — for 
Sydney  and  Norris  were  as  loyal  as  they  were  intelligent 
and  brave  ;  but  the  trust  in  their  characters  was  not  more 
implicit  than  it  had  been  in  that  of  Sir  William  Stanley 
before  the  commission  of  his  crime.  It  was  now  believed  that 
the  enemy  was  preparing  for  a  sudden  assault  upon  Ostend, 
with  the  connivance,  it  was  feared,  of  a  certain  portion  of  the 
English  garrison.  The  intelligence  was  at  once  conveyed  to 
her  Majesty's  Government  by  Sir  Edward  Norris,  and  they 
determined  to  take  a  lesson  from  past  experience.  Norris 
was  at  once  informed  that  in  view  of  the  attack  which  he 
apprehended,  his  garrison  should  be  strengthened  by  live 
hundred  men  under  Sir  Conyers  Clifford  from  certain  com¬ 
panies  in  Flushing,  and  that  other  reinforcements  should  be 
sent  from  the  English  troops  in  Normandy.  The  governor 
was  ordered  to  look  well  after  his  captains  and  soldiers,  to 
remind  them,  in  the  queen's  name,  of  their  duty  to  herself 
and  to  the  States,  to  bid  all  beware  of  sullying  the  English 
name,  to  make  close  investigations  into  any  possible  intrigues 
of  the  garrison  with  the  enemy,  and,  should  any  culprits  be 
found,  to  bring  them  at  once  to  condign  punishment.21 

The  queen,  too,  determined  that  there  should  be  no 
blighting  of  English  honour,  if  she  could  prevent  it  by  her 


so  Bor,  III.  714-718. 

21  The  Queen’s  minute  to  Sir  Ed¬ 


ward  Norris,  partly  in  Burghley’s 
hand,  Oct.  1593.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.) 


268  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXX. 

warnings,  indited  with  her  own  hand  a  characteristic  letter  to 
Sir  Edward  Norris,  to  accompany  the  more  formal  despatch 
of  Lord  Burghley.  Thus  it  ran  :  — 

“  Ned  ! — Though  you  have  some  tainted  sheep  among  your 
flock,  let  not  that  serve  for  excuse  for  the  rest.  We  trust 
you  are  so  carefully  regarded  as  nought  shall  he  left  for  you . 
excuses,  hut  either  ye  lack  heart  or  want  will ;  for  of  fear 
we  will  not  make  mention,  as  that  our  soul  abhors,  and  we 
assure  ourselves  you  will  never  discern  suspicion  of  it.  Now 
or  never  let  for  the  honour  of  us  and  our  nation,  each  man 
he  so  much  of  holder  heart  as  their  cause  is  good,  and  their 
honour  must  he  according,  remembering  the  old  goodness 
of  our  God,  who  never  yet  made  us  fail  His  needful  help, 
who  ever  bless  you  as  I  with  my  prince’s  hand  beseech 
Him.” 22  •  . 

The  warnings  and  preparations  proved  sufficiently  effective, 
and  the  great  schemes  with  which  the  new  royal  governor  of 
the  Netherlands  was  supposed  to  be  full — a  mere  episode  in 
which  was  the  conquest  of  Ostend — seemed  not  so  formidable 
as  their  shadows  had  indicated.  There  was,  in  the  not  very 
distant  future,  to  be  a  siege  of  Ostend,  which  the  world  would 
not  soon  forget,  but  perhaps  the  place  would  not  yield  to  a 
sudden  assault.  Its  resistance,  on  the  contrary,  might  prove 
more  protracted  than  was  then  thought  possible.  But  the 
chronicle  of  events  must  not  be  anticipated.  For  the  present, 
Ostend  was  safe.23 

Early  in  the  following  spring,  V erdugo  again  appeared  be- 


22  “  A  clause  written  in  the  letter  to 
Sir  Ed.  Norris,  with  her  Majesty’s  own 
hand.”  (S.  P.  Office  MS.) 

23  “  It  appears  by  those  advertise¬ 
ments  that  come  unto  me  out  of  the 
land,”  wrote  Sir  Ed.  Norris  to  Lord 
Burghley,  “  that  the  great  expectation 
which  was  had  of  the  coming  of  this 
new  great  governor  is  almost  gone, 
who  neither  for  peace  nor  war  doth 
seem  likely  to  perform  that  which  he 

promised . It  appears  that  his 

intention  was  by  all  means  to  settle 
those  parts  in  some  sort  of  peace,  truce, 
or  quiet  by  the  taking  of  Ostend, 


whilst  he  might  employ  his  whole 
forces  upon  greater  enterprises.  I 
think  he  is  now  out’of  hope  of  any,  for 
he  finds  no  likelihood  of  peace,  and  as 
for  the  taking  of  this  place  (Ostend), 
which  the  people  flattered  themselves 
so  much  withal,  methinks  the  hope  of 
it  is  delayed  ;  for  the-  great  works 
which  were  in  hand  at  Newport  and 
Bruges  are  laid  aside,  and  all  the 
workmen  licensed  to  go  home,  but  to 
be  ready  at  a  day’s  warning.” — Norris 
to  Burghley,  6  March,  1594.  (S.  P. 
Office  MS.) 


1594.  SIEGE  OF  COEWORDEN  RESUMED.  269 

fore  Coe worden  in  force.  It  was  obvious  that  the  great  city 
of  Groningen,  the  mistress  of  all  the  north-eastern  April,  • 
provinces,  would  soon  he  attacked,  and  Coeworden  1594. 
was  the  necessary  base  of  any  operations  against  the  place. 
Fortunately  for  the  States,  William  Lewis  had  in  the  pre¬ 
ceding  autumn  occupied  and  fortified  the  only  avenue  through 
the  Bourtange  morass,  so  that  when  Verdugo  sat  down  before 
Coeworden,  it  was  possible  for  Maurice,  by  moving  rapidly,  to 
take  the  royal  gpvernor  at  a  disadvantage.24 

Yerdugo  had  eight  thousand  picked  troops,  including  two 
thousand  Walloon  cavalry,  troopers  who  must  have  been  very 
formidable,  if  they  were  to  be  judged  by  the  prowess  of  one 
of  their  captains,  Gaucier  by  name.  This  obedient  Nether¬ 
lander  was  in  the  habit  of  boasting  that  he  had  slain  four 
hundred  and  ten  men  with  his  own  hand,  including  several 
prisoners  and  three  preachers  ; 25  but  the  rest  of  those  warriors 
were  not  so  famed  for  their  martial  achievements. 

The  peril,  however,  was  great,  and  Prince  Maurice,  trifling, 
not  a  moment,  threw  himself  with  twelve  thousand  infantry, 
Germans,  Frisians,  Scotch,  English,  and  Hollanders,  and  nearly 
two  thousand  horse,  at  once  upon  the  road  between  the  Vecht 
and  the  Bourtange  morass.  On  the  6tli  of  May,  5  May 
Verdugo  found  the  States’  commander-in-chief  en-  6  May. 
trenched  and  impregnable,  squarely  established  upon  his 
line  of  communications.  He  reconnoitred,  called  a  council 
of  war,-  and  decided  that  to  assail  him  were  madness  ;  to  re* 
main,  destruction.  On  the  night  of  the  6th  of  May,  he 
broke  up  his  camp  and  stole  away  in  the  darkness,  without 
sound  of  drum  or  trumpet,  leaving  all  his  fortifications  and 
burning  all  his  huts.26 

Thus  had  Maurice,  after  showing  the  wTorld  how  strong 
places  were  to  be  reduced,  given  a  striking  exhibition  of  the 
manner  in  which  they  were  to  be  saved. 

Coeworden,  after  thirty-one  weeks’  investment,  was  re¬ 
lieved. 


24  Bor,  III.  794-798.  Meteren,  xvi.  328-830. 

25  Meteren,  Reyd,  ix.  231.  26  Ibid. 


270 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Char  XXX. 


The  stadholder  now  marched  upon  Groningen.  This 
city  was  one  of  the  most  splendid  and  opulent  of  all 
the  Netherland  towns.  Certainly  it  should  have  been  one 
of  the  most  ancient  in  Europe,  since  it  derived  its  name 
_ according  to  that  pains-taking  banker,  Francis  Guicciar¬ 
dini — “from  Grun,  a  Trojan  gentleman/'  who,  neverthe¬ 
less,  according  to  Munster,  was  “a  Frenchman  by  birth." 
“Both  theories,  however,  might  be  true,"  added  the  con¬ 
scientious  Florentine,  “  as  the  French  have  always  claimed  to 
be  descended  from  the  relics  of  Troy."  27  A  simpler-minded 
antiquary  might  have  babbled  of  green  fields,  since  groenighe , 
or  greenness,  was  a  sufficiently  natural  appellation  for  a  town 
surrounded  as  was  Groningen  on  the  east  and  west  by  the 
greenest  and  fattest  of  pastures.  In  population  it  was  only 
exceeded  by  Antwerp  and  Amsterdam.28  Situate  on  the  line 
where  upper  and  nether  Germany  blend  into  one,  the  capital 
of  a  great  province  whose  very  name  was  synonymous  with 
.liberty,  and  whose  hardy  sons  had  done  fierce  battle  with 
despotism  in  every  age,  so  long  as  there  had  been  human 
record  of  despotism  and  of  battles,  Groningen  had  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  the  foreign  foe,  not  through  the  prowess  of  the 
Spaniard  but  the  treason  of  the  Netherlander.  The  baseness 
of  the  brilliant,  trusted,  valiant,  treacherous  young  Renneberg 
has  been  recorded  on  a  previous  page  of  these  volumes.2" 
For  thirteen  years  long  the  republic  had  chafed  at  this 
acquisition  of  the  hated  enemy  within  its  very  heart.  And 
now  the  day  had  come  when  a  blow  should  be  struck  for 
its  deliverance  by  the  ablest  soldier  that  had  ever  shown  him¬ 
self  in  those  regions,  one  whom  the  commonwealth  had 
watched  over  from  his  cradle. 

For  in  Groningen  there  was  still  a  considerable  party  in 
favour  of  the  Union,  although  the  treason  of  Renneberg  had 
hitherto  prevented  both  city  and  province  from  incorporating 
themselves  in  the  body  politic  of  the  United  Netherlands. 


21  Guicciardini,  in  wee. 

28  Guicciardini,  in  1585,  says  that 
no  Netherland  city  exceeded  it  in  pop¬ 


ulation. 

29  Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic,  vol. 
iii.  part  vi.  chap.  iii. 


1594 


SIEGE  OF  GRONINGEN. 


271 


Within  the  precincts  were  five  hundred  of  Verdugo's  veterans 
under  George  Lanckema,  stationed  at  a  faubourg  called 
Schuytendiess.30  In  the  city  there  was,  properly  speaking,  no 
garrison,31  for  the  citizens  in  the  last  few  years  had  come  to 
value  themselves  on  their  fidelity  to  church  and  king,  and 
to  take  a  sorry  pride  in  being  false  to  all  that  was  noble  in 
their  past.  Their  ancestors  had  wrested  privilege  after  privi¬ 
lege  at  the  sword's  point  from  the  mailed  hands  of  dukes  and 
emperors,  until  they  were  almost  a  self-governing  republic  ; 
their  courts  of  justice  recognizing  no  appeal  to  higher  powers, 
even  under  the  despotic  sway  of  Charles  V.  And  now, 
under  the  reign  of  his  son,  and  in  the  feebler  days  of  that 
reign,  the  capital  of  the  free  Frisians — the  men  whom  their 
ancient  pagan  statutes  had  once  declared  to  he  u  free  so  long 
as  the  wind  blew  out  of  the  clouds" — relied  upon  the  trained 
bands  of  her  burghers  enured  to  arms  and  well-provided  with 
all  munitions  of  war  to  protect  her,  not  against  foreign 
tyranny  nor  domestic  sedition,  but  against  liberty  and  against 
law. 

For  the  representative  of  the  most  ancient  of  the  princely 
houses  of  Europe,  a  youth  whose  ancestors  had  been  emperors 
when  the  forefathers  of  Philip,  long-descended  as  he  was, 
were  but  country  squires,  was  now  knocking  at  their  gates, 
blot  as  a  conqueror  and  a  despot,  but  as  the  elected  first 
magistrate  and  commander-in-chief  of  the  freest  common¬ 
wealth  in  the  world,  Maurice  of  Nassau,  at  the  head  of  fifteen 
thousand  Netherlanders,  countrymen  of  their  own,  now  sum¬ 
moned  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  and  province  to  participate 
with  their  fellow  citizens  in  all  the  privileges  and  duties  of 
the  prosperous  republic. 

It  seemed  impossible  that  such  an  appeal  could  be  resisted 
by  force  of  arms.  Rather  it  would  seem  that  the  very  walls 
should  have  fallen  at  his  feet  at  the  first  blast  of  the  trumpet ; 
but  there  was  military  honour,  there  was  religious  hatred, 
there  was  the  obstinacy  of  party.  More  than  all,  there  were 
half  a  dozen  J esuits  within  the  town,  and  to  those  ablest  of 
30  Meteren,  xvi.  330,  seqq.  Bor,  III.  808,  seqq.  31  Ibid. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXX. 


272 


generals  in  times  of  civil  war  it  was  mainly  owing  that  the 
siege  of  Groningen  was  protracted  longer  than  under  other 
circumstances  would  have  been  possible.32 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  describe  in  detail  the  scientific 
operations  during  the  sixty-five  days  between  the 
24  July’  20th  May  and  the  24th  July.  Again  the  com- 
1594  mander-in-chief  enlightened  the  world  by  an  exhibi¬ 
tion  of  a  more  artistic  and  humane  style  of  warfare  than 
previously  to  his  appearance  on  the  military  stage  had  been 
known.  But  the  daily  phenomena  of  the  Leaguer — although 
they  have  been  minutely  preserved  by  most  competent  eye¬ 
witnesses— are  hardly  entitled  to  a  place  except  in  special 
military  histories,  where,  however,  they  should  claim  the 
foremost  rank.33 

The  fortifications  of  the  city  were  of  the  most  splendid  and 
substantial  character  known  to  the  age.  The  ditches,  the 
ravelins,  the  curtains,  the  towers  were  as  thoroughly  con¬ 
structed  as  the  defences  of  any  place  in  Europe.  It*  was 
therefore  necessary  that  Maurice  and  his  cousin  Lewis  should 
employ  all  their  learning,  all  their  skill,  and  their  best  artil¬ 
lery  to  reduce  this  great  capital  of  the  Eastern  Netherlands. 
Again  the  scientific  coil  of  approaches  wound  itselt  around 
and  around  the  doomed  stronghold ;  again  were  constructed  the 
galleries,  the  covered  ways,  the  hidden  mines,  where  soldiers, 
transformed  to  gnomes,  burrowed  and  fought  within  the  bowels 
of  the  earth  ;  again  that  fatal  letter  Y  advanced  slowly  under 
ground,  stretching  its  deadly  prongs  nearer  and  nearer  up  to 
the  walls  ;  and  again  the  system  of  defences  against  a  relieving 
force  was  so  perfectly  jestablislied  that  Y erdugo  or  Mansfeld, 
with  what  troops  they  could  muster,  seemed  as  powerless  as 
the  pewter  soldiers  with  which  Maurice  in  his  boyhood — not 
yet  so  long  passed  away — was  wont  to  puzzle  over  the  pro¬ 
blems  which  now  practically  engaged  his  early  manhood. 
Again,  too,  strangely  enough,  it  is  recorded  that  Philip  Nassau, 


32  Meteren,  ubi  sup. 

33  See,  in  particular.  Journal  von 
Duyck,  ed.  Mulder,  394-405,  in  which 
every  daily  incident  of  the  siege  is 


minutely  and  scientifically  recorded. 
Bor,  III,  826-835.  Meteren,  xvl  330, 
seqq. 


1594 


SECOND  ADVENTURE  OF  COUNT  PHILIP.  273 

at  almost  the  same  period  of  the  siege  as  in  that  of  Gertruy- 
denberg,  signalized  himself  by  a  deed  of  drunken  n  jui  r 
tind  supeifluous  daring.  This  time  the  dinner  party"*  1594. 
was  at  the  quarters  of  Count  Solms,  in  honour  of  the  Prince 
cf  Anhalt,  where,  after  potations  pottle  deep,  Count  Philip 
rushed  fiom  the  dinner- table  to  the  breach,  not  yet  thoroughly 
piacticable,  of  the  north  ravelin,  and,  entirely  without  armour, 
mounted  pike  in  hand  to  the  assault,  proposing  to  carry  the 
.  fOTt  hY  his  own  unaided  exertions.  Another  officer,  one  Cap¬ 
tain  Yaillant,  still  more  beside  himself  than  was  the  count, 
inspired  him  to  these  deeds  of  valour  by  assuring  him  that 
the  mine  was  to  be  sprung  under  the  ravelin  that  afternoon, 
and  that  it  was  a  plot  on  the  part  of  the  Holland  boatmen  to 
prevent  the  soldiers  who  had  been  working  so  hard  and  so  lon«-  v 
in  the  mines  from  taking  part  in  the  honours  of  the  assault. 
The  count  was  with  difficulty  brought  off  with  a  whole  skin 
and  put  to  bed.84  Yet  despite  these  disgraceful  pranks  there 
is  no  doubt  that  a  better  and  braver  officer  than  he  was 
hardly  to  be  found  even  among  the  ten  noble  Hassaus  who  at 
that  moment  were  fighting  for  the  cause  of  Dutch  liberty— 
fortunately  with  more  sobriety  than  he  at  all  times  displayed. 

On  the  following  day,  Prince  Maurice,  making  a  recon- 
noissance  of  the  works  with  his  usual  calmness,  yet  with 
the  habitual  contempt  of  personal  danger  which  made 
so  singular  a  contrast  with  the  cautious  and  painstaking 
characteristics  of  his  strategy,  very  narrowly  escaped  death. 

A  shot  fi  om  the  fort  struck  so  hard  upon  the  buckler  under 
cover  of  which  he  was  taking  his  observations  as  to 
fell  kirn  to  the  ground.35  Sir  Francis  Vere,  who  12  July- 
v,  as  with  the  prince  under  the  same  buckler,  likewise  measured 
his  length  in  the  trench,  but  both  escaped  serious  injury.36 
Pauli,  one  of  the  States  commissioners  present  in  the  camp, 
wrote  to  Barneveld  that  it  was  to  be  hoped  that  the  accident 
might  piove  a  warning  to  his  Excellency.  He  had  repeatedly 
remonstrated  with  him,  he  said,  against  his  reckless  exposure 


34  Duyck,  448. 

36  Bor,  vhi  sup. 

VOL.  HI. — T 


Bor  HI.  832.  35  Bor,  uU  sup.  Duyck,  448.  Meteren,  330. 

But  Duyck  makes  no  mention  of  Vere  in  this  connection. 


274  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXX. 

of  himself  to  unnecessary  danger,  hut  he  was  so  energetic  and 
so  full  of  courage  that  it  was  impossible  to  restrain  him  from 
being  everywhere  every  day.37 

Three  days  later,  the  letter  Y  did  its  work.  At  ten  o  clock 
15  July  of  the  night  of  the  15th  J uly,  Prince  Mauncd  ordered 
1594  ’  t]ie  mines  to  he  sprung,  when  the  north  ravelin  was 
blown  into  the  air,  and  some  forty  of  the  garrison  with  it 38 
Two  of  them  came  flying  into  the  besiegers’  camp,  and, 
strange  to  say,  one  was  alive  and  sound.33  The  catastrophe 
finished  the  sixty-five  days’  siege,  the  breach  was  no  longer 
defensible,  the  obstinacy  of  the  burghers  was  exhausted,  and  . 
capitulation  followed.  In  tru  th ,  there  had  been  a  sub  terranean 
intrigue  going  on  for  many  weeks,  which  was  almost  as 
effective  as  the  mine.  A  certain  Jan  te  Boer  had  been  going 
back  and  forth  between  camp  and  city,  under  various  pretexts 
and  safe-conducts,  and  it  had  at  last  appeared  that  the  Jesuits 
and  the  five  hundred  of  Yerdugo’s  veterans  were  all  that  pre¬ 
vented  Groningen  from  returning  to  the  Union.  There  had 
been  severe  fighting  within  the  city  itself,  for  the  Jesuits 
had  procured  the  transfer  of  the  veterans  from  the  faubouig  to 
the  town  itself,  and  the  result  of  all  these  operations, 
1594  y’  political,  military,  and  jesuitieal,  was  that  on  22nd 
July  articles  of  surrender  were  finally  agreed  upon  between 
Maurice  and  a  deputation  from  the  magistrates,  the  guil  s, 

and  commander  Lanckema.40  . 

The  city  was  to  take  its  place  thenceforth  as  a  member  o 
the  Union.  William  Lewis,  already  stadholder  of  Friesland 
for  the  united  States,  was  to  be  recognised  as  chief  magis¬ 
trate  of  the  whole  province,  which  was  thus  to  retain  all  its 
ancient  privileges,  laws,  and  rights  of  self-government,  win  e 
it  exchanged  its  dependence  on  a  distant,  foreign,  and  de¬ 
caying  despotism  for  incorporation  with  a  young  and  vigorous 

commonwealth.  . 

It  was  arranged  that  no  religion  but  the  reformed  religion, 

as  then  practised  in  the  united  republic,  should  be  publicly 


37  Bor,  ubi  sup. 
39  Meteren,  330. 


®  Duyck,  452,  453.  Bor  Meteren. 
40  Bor.  Meteren.  Duyck,  456-404. 


% 


1594  GRONINGEN  ADDED  TO  THE  UNION.  275 

exercised  in  the  province,  but  that  no  man  should  he  ques¬ 
tioned  as  to  his  faith,  or  troubled  in  his  conscience.  Cloisters 
and  ecclesiastical  property  were  to  remain  in  statu  quo ,  until 
the  States-General  should  come  to  a  definite  conclusion  on 
these  subjects.41 

Universal  amnesty  was  proclaimed  for  all  offences  and 
quarrels.  Every  citizen  or  resident  foreigner  was  free  to 
remain  in  or  to  retire  from  the  town  or  province,  with  full 
protection  to  his  person  and  property,  and  it  was  expressly 
provided  in  the  articles  granted  to  Lanckema  that  his  soldiers 
•  should  depart  with  arms  and  baggage,  leaving  to  Prince 
Maurice  their  colours  only,  while  the  prince  furnished  suffi¬ 
cient  transportation  for  their  women  and  their  wounded. 
The  property  of  Verdugo,  royal  stadholder  of  the  province, 
was  to  be  respected,  and  to  remain  in  the  city,  or  to  he 
taken  thence  under  safe  conduct,  as  might  be  preferred.42 


11  Art.  VI.  Meteren,  331.  Bor, 
835.  The  intelligence  of  the  capture 
of  Groningen  excited  great  enthusiasm 
in  the  court  of  the  French  king,  caus¬ 
ing  “  the  power  of  the  States  and  the 
name  of  the  prince  to  he  extolled  to 
heaven,”  according  to  Calvaert.  “  The 
entire  suspension  of  Catholic  worship, 
however,  and  the  introduction  of  the 
reformed  religion  in  the  city,  were 
reprehended  by  many.  The  king  sen¬ 
sibly  answered,  said  the  envoy,  that 
the  townspeople  had  themselves 
been  the  cause  of  this,  never  having 
been  willing  to  permit  a  church  for 
the  reformed  faith.  Now  they  were 
tripped  up  in  the  same  way  since  they 
found  themselves  conquered.  His 
Majesty  added  that  your  highnesses, 
when  the  Spaniards  had  been  com¬ 
pletely  driven  out  of  the  country, 
would  willingly  re-open  the  Catholic 
churches  in  your  provinces,  if  the 
others  would  do  the  same  towards  the 
reformed  ones ;  asking  me  if  it  were 
not  so.  I  answered  yes,  enlarging  on 
the  topic  in  such  wise  as  I  thought 
suited  the  occasion  ;  and  my  language 
seemed  to  mitigate  the  said  offence.” 
Deventer,  Gedenkstukken,  ii.  p.  32. 

Here  certainly  seemed  progress  in 
the  history  of  civilization.  The  French 


king  and  the  republican  envoy  agree¬ 
ing  that  Catholics  and  Protestants 
ought  to  have  and  were  to  have  equal 
rights  of  public  worship,  showed  an 
advance  on  the  doctrine  of  Philip  and 
of  the  German  Protestant  princes  that 
the  vassal  was  to  have  no  opinion  but 
his  master’s.  Nevertheless  the  States- 
General  were  not  pleased  that  their 
envoy  should  have  answered  the  new¬ 
ly  converted  Henry  so  glibly  on  the 
great  subject  of  protection  to  Catholics. 
He  was  asked  by  what  authority  he 
had  given  so  categorical  an  answer, 
and  he  was  directed  in  future  jto  think 
twice,  and  ask  for  instructions  in  such 
emergencies.  To  promise  public  wor¬ 
ship  of  a  religion  professed  mainly  in 
the  Netherlands  by  the  adherents  of 
the  Spanish  king  and  the  enemies  of 
the  States  was  pronounced  altogether 
too  rash.  It  was  inferred  from  the 
eagerness  manifested  on  this  occasion, 
that  the  French  king  would  be  easily 
induced  to  make  war  on  those  of  the 
reformed  religion  in  case  they  were  not 
willing  to  submit  themselves  to  his 
discretion,  and  the  Queen  of  England 
was  perpetually  intimating  such  a  sus¬ 
picion  to  the.  States.  Duyck,  475, 

4'2  Bor,  Meteren,  ubi  sup. 


276 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXX. 


Ten  thousand  cannon-shot  had  been  fired  against  the  city. 
The  cost  of  powder  and  shot  consumed  was  estimated,  at  a 
hundred  thousand  florins.  Four  hundred  of  the  besiegers 
had  been  killed,  and  a  much  larger  number  wounded.  The 
army  had  been  further  weakened  by  sickness  and  numerous 
desertions.  Of  the  besieged,  three  hundred  soldiers  in  all 

were  killed,  and  a  few  citizens. 

Thirty-six  cannon  were  taken,  besides  mortars,  and  it  was 
said  that  eight  hundred  tons  of  powder,  and  plenty  of  other 
ammunition  and  provisions,  were  found  in  the  place. 

On  the  23rd  July  Maurice  and  William  Lewis  entered  the  . 
city.  Some  of  the  soldiers  were  disappointed  at  the  inexor¬ 
able  prohibition  of  pillage  ;  but  it  was  the  purpose  of  Maurice, 
as  of  the  States-Gieneral,  to  place  the  sister  province  at  once  in 
the  unsullied  possession  of  the  liberty  and  the  order  foi 
which  the  struggle  with  Spain  had  been  carried  on  so  long. 
If  the  limitation  of  public  religious  worship  seemed  harsh,  it 
should  be  remembered  that  Romanism  in  a  city  occupied  by 
Spanish  troops  had  come  to  mean  unmitigated  hostility  to 
the  republic.  In  the  midst  of  civil  war,  the  hour  for  that 
religious  liberty  which  was  the  necessary  issue  of  the 
great  conflict  had  not  yet  struck.  It  was  surely  some¬ 
thing  gained  for  humanity  that  no  man  should  be  questioned 
at  all  as  to  his  creed  in  countries  where  it  was  so  recently 
the  time-honoured  practice  to  question  him  on  the  rack, 
and  to  burn  him  if  the  answer  was  objectionable  to  the 

inquirer. 

It  was  something  that  the  holy  Inquisition  had  been  for 
ever  suppressed  in  the  land.  It  must  be  admitted,  likewise, 
that  the  terms  of  surrender  and  the  spectacle  of  re-established 
law  and  order  which  succeeded  the  capture  of  Groningen 
furnished  a  wholesome  contrast  to  the  scenes  of  ineffable 


of  which  artful  always  been,  more  powerful  than  else- 


burghers,  any  one  ot  which  arttul 
women  was  equal,  be  says,  to  tliree 


where. 


1594. 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  REPUBLIC. 


277 


horror  that  had  been  displayed  whenever  a  Dutch  town  had 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  Philip. 

And  thus  the  commonwealth  of  the  United  Netherlands, 
through  the  practical  military  genius  and  perseverance  of 
Maurice  and  Lewis  William,  and  the  substantial  statesman¬ 
ship  of  Barneveld  and  his  colleagues,  had  at  last  rounded 
itself  into  definite  shape  ;  while  in  all  directions  toward  which 
men  turned  their  eyes,  world-empire,  imposing  and  gorgeous 
as  it  had  seemed  for  an  interval,  was  vanishing  before  its 
votaries  like  a  mirage.  The  republic,  placed  on  the  solid 
foundations  of  civil  liberty,  self-government,  and  reasonable 
law,  was  steadily  consolidating  itself. 

No  very  prominent  movements  were  undertaken  by  the 
forces  of  the  Union  during  the  remainder  of  the  year. 
According  to  the  agreements  with  Henry  IY.  it  had  been 
necessary  to  provide  that  monarch  with  considerable  assist¬ 
ance  to  carry  on  his  new  campaigns,  and  it  was  therefore 
difficult  for  Maurice  to  begin  for  the  moment  upon  the  larger 
schemes  which  he  had  contemplated. 

Meantime  the  condition  of  the  obedient  Netherlands  de¬ 
mands  a  hasty  glance. 

On  the  death  of  brother  Alexander  the  Capuchin,  Fuentes 
produced  a  patent  by  which  Peter  Ernest  Mansfeld  was  pro¬ 
visionally  appointed  governor,  in  case  the  post  should  become 
vacant.  During  the  year  which  followed,  that  testy  old 
campaigner  had  indulged  himself  in  many  petty  feuds  with 
all  around  him,  but  had  effected,  as  we  have  seen,  very  little 
to  maintain  the  king’s  authority  either  in  the  obedient  or 
disobedient  provinces. 

His  utter  incompetency  soon  became  most  painfully  appa¬ 
rent.  His  more  than  puerile  dependence  upon  his  son,  and 
the  more  than  paternal  severity  exercised  over  him  by  Count 
Charles,  were  made  manifest  to  all  the  world.  The  son  ruled 
the  trembling  but  peevish  old  warrior  with  an  iron  rod,  and 
endless  Fas  their  wrangling  with  Fuentes  and  all  the  other 
Spaniards.  Between  the  cpierulousness  of  the  one  and  the 
ferocity  of  the  other,  poor  Fuentes  became  sick  of  his  life. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXX. 


278 


« >Tis  a  diabolical  genius,  this  Count  Charles/'  said  Ybarra, 
“and  so  full  of  ambition  that  ho  insists  on  governing 
everybody  just  as  he  rules  his  father.  As  for  me,  until  the 
archduke  comes  I  am  a  fish  out  of  water." 44 

The  true  successor  to  Farnese  was  to  be  the  Archduke 
Ernest,  one  of  the  many  candidates  for  the  hand  of  the 
Infanta,  and  for  the  throne  of  that  department  of  the  Spanish 
dominions  which  was  commonly  called  France.  Should 
Philip  not  appropriate  the  throne  without  further  scruple,  in 
person,  it  was  on  the  whole  decided  that  his  favorite  nephew 
should  be  the  satrap  of  that  outlying  district  of  the  Spanish 
empire.  In  such  case  obedient  France  might  be  annexed  to 
obedient  Netherlands,  and  united  under  the  sway  of  Arch¬ 
duke  Ernest. 

But  these  dreams  had  proved  in  the  cold  air  of  reality 
but  midsummer  madness.  When  the  name  of  the  archduke 
was  presented  to  the  estates  as  King  Ernest  I.  of  France, 
even  the  most  unscrupulous  and  impassioned  Leaguers  ol 
that  country  fairly  hung  their  heads.45  That  a  foreign  prince, 
whose  very  name  had  never  been  before  heard  of  by  the  vast 
bulk  of  the  French  population,  should  be  deliberately'  placed 
upon  the  throne  of  St.  Louis  and  Hugh  Capet,  was  a  humilia¬ 
tion  hard  to  defend,  profusely  as  Philip  had  scattered  the  Pe¬ 
ruvian  and  Mexican  dollars  among  the  great  ones  of  the 
nation,  in  order  to  accomplish  his  purpose. 

So  Archduke  Ernest,-  early  in  the  year  1594,  came  to 
January,  Brussels,  but  he  came  as  a  gloomy,  disappointed 
1594.  man.  To  be  a  bachelor-governor  of  the  impoverished, 
exhausted,  half-rebellious,  and  utterly  forlorn  little  remnant 
of  the  Spanish  Netherlands,  was  a  different  position  from  that 
of  husband  of  Clara  Isabella  and  king  of  France,  on  which 
his  imagination  had  been  feeding  so  long. 

For  nearly  the  whole  twelvemonth  subsequent  to  the  death 


44  Ybarra  to  tlie  Secretaries,  5  Oct. 
1593.  (Arch  de  Simancas  MS.) 

45  “  Ils  furent  presque  tous  frappes 
d’horreur  en  considerant  l’extremite 
on  etaient  reduits  les  Francais  de 


penser  choisir  pour  Roy  un  homme 
qu’ils  ne  scavaient  seuloment  qu’il 
fust  au  inonde.” — Lettres  de  Bongars, 
24  July,  1593,  p.  235. 


1594. 


THE  SUCCESSOR  OF  FARNESE. 


279 


of  Farnese,  the  Spanish  envoy  to  the  Imperial  court  had  been 
endeavouring  to  arrange  for  the  dejjarture  of  the  archduke  to 
his  seat  of  government  in  the  Netherlands.  The  prince 
himself  was  willing  enough,  hut  there  were  many  obstacles 
on  the  part  of  the  emperor  and  his  advisers.  “  Especially 
there  is  one  very  great  impossibility,”  said  San  Clemente, 
“  and  that  is  the  poverty  of  his  Highness,  which  is  so  great 
that  my  own  is  not  greater  in  my  estate.  So  I  don’t  see  how 
he  can  stir  a  step  without  money.  Here  they’ll  not  furnish 
him  with  a  penny,  and  for  himself  he  possesses  nothing  hut 
debts.” 4(3  The  emperor  was  so  little  pleased  with  the  adven¬ 
ture  that  in  truth,  according  to  the  same  authority,  he  looked 
upon  the  new  viceroy’s  embarrassments  with  considerable 
satisfaction,  so  that  it  was  necessary  for  Philip  to  provide 
for  his  travelling  expenses.47 

Ernest  was  next  brother  of  the  Emperor  Rudolph,  and  as 
intensely  devoted  to  the  interests  of  the  Roman  Church  as 
was  that  potentate  himself,  or  even  his  uncle  Philip. 

He  was  gentle,  weak,  melancholy,  addicted  to  pleasure,  a 
martyr  to  the  gout.  He  brought  no  soldiers  to  the  provinces, 
for  the  emperor,  threatened  with  another  world-empire  on  his 
pagan  flank,  had  no  funds  nor  troops  to  send  to  the  assistance 
of  his  Christian  brother-in-law  and  uncle.  Moreover,  it  may 
he  imagined  that  Rudolph,  despite  the  bonds  of  religion  and 
consanguinity,  was  disposed  to  look  coldly  on  the  colossal 
projects  of  Philip. 

So  Ernest  brought  no  troops,  but  he  brought  six  hundred 
and  seventy  gentlemen,  pages,  and  cooks,  and  five  hundred 
and  thirty-four  horses,  not  to  charge  upon  the  rebellious 
Dutchmen  withal,  but  to  draw  coaches  and  six.48 

There  was  trouble  enough  prepared  for  the  new  governor 
at  his  arrival.  The  great  Flemish  and  Walloon  nobles  were 
quarrelling  fiercely  with  the  Spaniards  and  among  them- 


46  “Una  imposibilidad  muy  grande 
es  sn  pobreza  que  esta  de  manera  que 
no  es  mayor  la  mia  en  mi  estado,  y  assi 
no  se  yo  como  podra  dar  un  passo  sin 
dinero  y  de  aqui  no  socorreren  con 
un  real,  ni  el  tiene  sino  dendas.” — G. 


de  San  Clemente  to  Fuentes,  14  March 
1593.  (Arch  de  Simancas  MS.) 

47  San  Clemente  to  Fuentes  2  May, 
1593.  (Arch,  de  Simancas,  MS.) 
Same  to  same,  3  Aug.  1593.  (Ibid.) 

48  Bor,  III.  782.  Reyd,  ix.  220. 


Chap.  XXX. 


2go  the  united  Netherlands. 

selves  for  office  and  for  precedence.  Arschot  and  his 
brother  Havre  both  desired  the  government  of  Flanders; 
so  did  Arenberg.  All  three,  as  well  as  other  gentlemen, 
were  scrambling  for  the  major-domo’s  office  in  Ernest’s 
palace.  Havre  wanted  the  finance  department  as  well, 
but  Ybarra,  who  was  a  financier,  thought  the  public  funds 
in  his  hands  would  be  in  a  perilous  condition,  inasmuch 
as  he  was  accounted  the  most  covetous  man  in  all  the 

provinces.49 

So  soon  as  the  archduke  was  known  to  he  approaching  the 
capital  there  was  a  most  ludicrous  race  lun  by  all  these 
grandees,  in  order  to  be  the  first  to  greet  his  Highness.  ^Vhile 
Mansfeld  and  Fuentes  were  squabbling,  as  usual,  Arscliot  got 
the  start  of  both,  and  arrived  at  Treves.  Then  the  decrepit 
Peter  Ernest  struggled  as  far  as  Luxembourg,  while  Fuentes 
posted  on  to  Namur.50  The  archduke  was  much  perplexed 
as  to  the  arranging  of  all  these  personages  on  the  day  of  his 
entrance  into  Brussels.  In  the  council  of  state  it  was  still 
worse.  Arschot  claimed  the  first  place  as  duke  and  as  senior 
member,  Peter  Ernest  demanded  it  as  late  governor-general 
and  because  of  his  grey  hairs.51  Never  was  imperial  highness 
more  disturbed,  never  was  clamour  for  loaves  and  fishes  more 
deafening.  The  caustic  financier — whose  mind  was  just  then 
occupied  with  the  graver  matter  of  assassination  on  a  con¬ 
siderable  scale — looked  wuth  profound  contempt  at  the 
spectacle  thus  presented  to  him.  “  There  has  been  the 
devil’s  own  row,”  said  he,  “between  these  counts  about 
offices,  and  also  about  going  out  to  receive  the  most  serene 
archduke.  I  have  had  such  work  with  them  that  by  the 
salvation  of  my  soul  I  swear  if  it  were  to  last  a  fortnight 
longer  I  would  go  off  afoot  to  Spain,  even  if  I  were  sure  of 
dying  in  jail  after  I  got  there.  I  have  reconciled  the  two 
counts  (Fuentes  and  Mansfeld)  with  each  other  a  hundred 
times,  and  another  hundred  times  they  have  fallen  out  again, 
and  behaved  themselves  with  such  vulgarity  that  I  blushed 

49  Ybarra  to - ,  22  Nov.  1593.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 

50  Papel  sobre  las  precedences.  (Ibid.)  51  (Ibid.) 


1594. 


UNPOPULARITY  OF  ERNEST. 


281 


for  them.52  They  are  both  to  blame,  but  at  any  rate  we  have 
now  got  the  archduke  housed,  and  he  will  get  us  out  of  this 
embar  ras  smen  t . ’  ’ 

The  archduke  came  with  rather  a  prejudice  against  the 
Spaniards — the  result  doubtless  of  his  disappointment  in 
regard  to  France — and  he  manifested  at  first  an  extreme 
haughtiness  to  those  of  that  nation  with  whom  he  came  in 
contact.  A  Castilian  noble  of  high  rank,  having  audience 
with  him  on  one  occasion,  replaced  his  hat  after  salutation, 
as  he  had  been  accustomed  to  do — according  to  the  manner 
of  grandees  of  Spain — during  the  government  of  Farnese. 
The  hat  was  rudely  struck  from  his  head  by  the  archduke’s 
chamberlain,  and  he  was  himself  ignominiously  thrust  out 
cf  the  presence.53  At  another  time  an  interview  was  granted 
to  two  Spanish  gentlemen  who  had  business  to  transact. 
They  made  their  appearance  in  magnificent  national  costume, 
splendidly  embroidered  in  gold.  After  a  brief  hearing  they 
were  dismissed,  with  appointment  of  another  audience  for  a 
few  days  later.  When  they  again  presented  themselves  they 
found  the  archduke  with  his  court-jester  standing  at  his  side, 
the  buffoon  being  attired  in  a  suit  precisely  similar  to  their 
own,  which  in  the  interval  had  been  prepared  by  the  court 
tailor.51 

Such  amenities  as  these  did  not  increase  the  popularity  of 
Ernest  with  the  high-spirited  Spaniards,  nor  was  it  palatable 
to  them  that  it  should  be  proposed  to  supersede  the  old 
fighting  Portuguese,  Verdugo,  as  governor  and  commander-in¬ 
chief  for  the  king  in  Friesland,  by  Frederic  van  den  Berg,  a 
renegade  Netherlander,  unworthy  cousin  of  the  Nassaus, 
who  had  never  shown  either  military  or  administrative 
genius. 

Nor  did  he  succeed  in  conciliating  the  Flemings  or  the 


52  “  Ha  pasado  aqui.  una  baraunda 
del  diablo  entre  estos  seiiores  Condes 
sobre  la  reformation  y  despues  sobre 
el  salir  a  recibir  al  Serm0  Arcliiduque, 
y  tanto  trabajo  mio,  que  por  la  salva¬ 
tion  de  mi  alma  juro  qne  si  hubiera  de 
durar  esto  15  dias  mas  me  fuera  a  pie 


a  Espana  aunque  supiera  morir  en  la 
carcel.  Tuve  los  concertados  cien 
vezes  y  otras  ciento  se  ban  desconcer- 
tado  y  tratado  por  un  termino  tan  vul¬ 
gar  que  yo  estoy  corrido,”  &c.  (Arcli. 
de  Simancas  'MS.) 

53  Reyd,  ix.  222.  54  Ibid. 


282 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXX. 


t * 

Germans  by  these  measures.  In  truth  he  was,  almost  with¬ 
out  his  own  knowledge,  under  the  controlling  influence  of 
Fuentes,55  the  most  unscrupulous  and  dangerous  Spaniard  of 
them  all,  while  his  every  proceeding  was  closely  watched 
not  only  by  Diego  and  Stephen  Ybarra,  but  even  by  Chris- 
toval  de  Moura,  one  of  Philip's  two  secretaries  of  state  who  at 
this  crisisj  made  a  visit  to  Brussels.56 

These  men  were  indignant  at  the  imbecility  of  the  course 
pursued  in  the  obedient  provinces.  They  knew  that  the  incapa¬ 
city  of  the  Government  to  relieve  the  sieges  of  Gertruydenberg 
and  Groningen  had  excited  the1  contempt  of  Europe,  and  was 
producing  a  most  damaging  effect  on  Spanish  authority 
throughout  Christendom.57  They  were  especially  irritated  by 
the  presence  of  the  arch-intriguer,  Mayenne,  in  Brussels,  even 
after  all  his  double  dealings  had  been  so  completely  exposed 
that  a  blind  man  could  have  read  them.  Yet  there  was 
Mayenne,  consorting  with  the  archduke,  and  running  up  a 
great  bill  of  sixteen  thousand  florins  at  the  hotel,  which  the 
royal  paymaster  declined  to  settle  for  want  of  funds,  notwith¬ 
standing  Ernest's  order  to  that  effect,58  and  there  was  no  pos¬ 
sibility  of  inducing  the  viceroy  to  arrest  him,  much  as  he  had 
injured  and  defrauded  the  king. 

How  severely  Ybarra  and  Feria  denounced  Mayenne  has 
been  seen  ;  but  remonstrances  about  this  and  other  grave  mis¬ 
takes  of  administration  were  lost  upon  Ernest,  or  made  almost 
impossible  by  his  peculiar  temper.  “  If  I  speak  of  these 
things  to  his  Highness,"  said  Ybarra,  “  he  will  begin  to  cry, 
as  he  always  does." 59 


55  Fuentes  was  not  a  favourite  with  j 
Queen  Elizabeth.  When  informed 
that  he  was  to  succeed  to  the  govern¬ 
ment  of  the  provinces  after  the  death 
of  Parma,  she  remarked  to  Noel  de 
Caron  that  it  w'as  the  same  Count 
Fuentes  who  •  had  so  shamefully  run 
away  when  Earl  Essex  and  her  people 
were  before  Lisbon,  that  he  was  a 
timid  old  woman,  but  none  the  less 
a  great  tyrant,  and  that  therefore  he 
had  been  sent,  after  the  death  of  the 
Duke  of  Alva,  to  Portugal,  and  ap-  j 
pointed  lieutenant-general  of  the  Car-  ’ 


dinal  of  Austria,  in  order  to  carry  out 
what  had  been  left  unfinished  by  the 
duke.  She  doubted  not,  she  said,  that 
he  would  attempt  the  same  practices  in 
the  Netherlands,  but  she  hoped  that  a 
Spanish  governor  would  never  be  tole¬ 
rated  there.”  Noel  de  Caron  to  the 
States-General,  10  Dec.  1592.  (Hague 
Archives  MS.)  Compare  Duyck,  465. 

56  Intercepted  letters  of  San  Cle¬ 
mente,  in  Bor,  III.  852-855. 

57  Ibid. 

58  Reyd,  ix.  243. 

59  Ibid.  242. 


1594.  ACHIEVEMENTS  OF  THE  REPUBLICANS.  283 

Ybarra,  however,  thought  it  his  duty  secretly  to  give  the 
king  frequent  information  as  to  the  blasted  and  forlorn  con¬ 
dition  of  the  provinces.  “  This  sick  man  will  die  in  our 
arms,”  he  said,  “  without  our  wishing  to  kill  him.”  00  He  also 
left  no  doubt  in  the  royal  mind  as  to  the  utter  incompetency 
of  the  archduke  for  his  office.  Although  he  had  much  Chris¬ 
tianity,  amiability,  and  good  intentions,  he  was  so  unused  to 
business,  so  slow  and  so  lazy,  so  easily  persuaded  by  those 
around  him,  as  to  be  always  falling  into  errors.  He  was  the 
servant  of  his  own  servants,  particularly  of  those  least  dis¬ 
posed  to  the  king’s  service  and  most  attentive  to  their  own 
interests.  He  had  endeavoured  to  make  himself  beloved  by 
the  natives  of  the  country,  while  the  very  reverse  of  this  had 
been  the  result.  “  As  to  his  agility  and  the  strength  of  his 
body,”  said  the  Spaniard,  as  if  he  were  thinking .  of  certain 
allegories  which  were  to  mark  the  archduke’s  triumphal  en¬ 
try,  “  they  are  so  deficient  as  to  leave  him  unfit  for  arms. 
I  consider  him  incapable  of  accompanying  an  army  to  the 
field,  and  we  find  him  so  new  to  all  such  affairs  as  constitute 
government  and  the  conduct  of  warlike  business,  that  he  could 
not  steer  his  way  without  some  one  to  enlighten  and  direct 
him.”  61 

It  was  sometimes  complained  of  in  those  days — and  the 
thought  has  even  prolonged  itself  until  later  times — that 
those  republicans  of  the  United  Netherlands  had  done  and 
could  do  great  things  ;  but  that,  after  all,  there  was  no 
grandeur  about  them.  Certainly  they  had  done  great  things. 
It  was  something  to  fight  the  Ocean  for  ages,  and  patiently 
and  firmly  to  shut  him  out  from  his  own  domain.  It 
was  something  to  extinguish  the  Spanish  Inquisition — a 
still  more  cruel  and  devouring  enemy  than  the  sea.  It 
was  something  that  the  fugitive  spirit  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty  had  found  at  last  its  most  substantial  and  steadfast 
home  upon  those  storm- washed  shoals  and  shifting  sandbanks. 

jado  para  que  se  le  muera  en  los 
brazos  sin  quererle  matar,”  &c. 

61  Ibid. 


60  Ybarra  to  Philip,  21  June,  1594. 
(Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.)  “  La  enfer- 
medad  de  esto  cuerpo  es  muy  apare- 


284 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXX. 


It  was  something  to  come  to  the  rescue  of  England  in  her 
great  agony  and  help  to  save  her  from  invasion.  It  was 
something  to  do  more  than  any  nation  hut  England,  and 
as  much  as  she,  to  assist  Henry  the  Huguenot  to  the  throne 
of  his  ancestors  and  to  preserve  the  national  unity  of  France 
which  its  own  great  ones  had  imperilled.  It  was  something 
to  found  two  magnificent  universities,  cherished  abodes  of 
science  and  of  antique  lore,  in  the  midst  of  civil  commotions 
and  of  resistance  to  foreign  oppression.  It  was  something,  at 
the  same  period,  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  system  of  common 
schools — so  cheap  as  to  he  nearly  free — for  rich  and  poor 
alike,  which,  in  the  words  of  one  of  the  greatest  benefactors 
to  the  young  republic,  “  would  be  worth  all  the  soldiers, 
arsenals,  armouries,  munitions,  and  alliances  in  the  world/' 
It  was  something  to  make  a  revolution,  as  humane  as 
it  was  effective,  in  military  affairs,  and  to  create  an  army 
whose  camps  were  European  academies.  It  was  something 
to  organize,  at  the  same  critical  period,  on  the  most 
skilful  and  liberal  scale,  and  to  carry  out  with  unexampled 
daring,  sagacity,  and  fortitude,  great  voyages  of  discovery 
to  the  polar  regions,  and  to  open  new  highways  for  com¬ 
merce,  new  treasures  for  science.  Many  things  of  this 
nature  had  been  done  by  the  new  commonwealth  ;  but,  alas  ! 
she  did  not  drape  herself  melodramatically,  nor  stalk  about 
with  heroic  wreath  and  cothurn.  She  was  altogether  without 
grandeur. 

When  Alva  had  gained  his  signal  victories,  and  followed 
them  up  by  those  prodigious  massacres  which,  but  for  his 
own  and  other  irrefragable  testimony,  would  seem  too  mon¬ 
strous  for  belief,  he  had  erected  a  colossal  statue  to  himself, 
attired  in  the  most  classical  of  costumes,  and  surrounded 
with  the  most  mythological  of  attributes.  Here  was  gran¬ 
deur.  But  William  the  Silent,  after  he  had  saved  the  re¬ 
public,  for  which  he  had  laboured  during  his  whole  lifetime 
and  was  destined  to  pour  out  his  heart's  blood,  went  about 
among  the  brewers  and  burghers  with  unbuttoned  doublet 
and  woollen  bargeman's  waistcoat.  It  was  justly  objected  to 


I 


1594. 


JOHN  BAPTIST  HOUWAERTS. 


285 


his  clothes,  by  the  euphuistic  Eulke  Greville,  that  a  mean- 
born  student  of  the  Inns  of  Court  would  have  been  ashamed 
to  walk  about  London  streets  in  them.02 

And  now  the  engineering  son  of  that  shabbily-dressed  per¬ 
sonage  had  been  giving  the  whole  world  lessons  in  the  science 
of  war,  and  was  fairly  perfecting  the  work  which  William  and 
his  great  contemporaries  had  so  well  begun.  But  if  all  this 
had  been  merely  doing  great  things  without  greatness,  there 
was  one  man  in  the  Netherlands  who  knew  what  grandeur 
was.  He  was  not  a  citizen  of  the  disobedient  republic,  how¬ 
ever,  but  a  loyal  subject  of  the  obedient  provinces,  and  his 
name  was  John  Baptist  Houwaerts,  an  eminent  schoolmaster 
of  Brussels.  He  was  still  more  eminent  as  a  votary  of 
what  was  called  u  Rhetoric  ”  and  as  an  arranger  of  triumphal 
processions  and  living  pictures. 

The  arrival  of  Archduke  Ernest  at  the  seat  of  the  pro¬ 
vincial  Government  offered  an  opportunity,  which  had  long 
been  wanting,  for  a  display  of  John  Baptist's  genius.  The 
new  viceroy  was  in  so  shattered  a  condition  of  health,  so 
crippled  with  the  gout,  as  to  be  quite  unable  to  stand,  and  it 
required  the  services  of  several  lackeys  to  lift  him  into  and 
out  of  his  carriage.63  A  few  days  of  repose  therefore  were 
indispensable  to  him  before  he  could  make  his  “  joyous 
entrance"  into  the  capital.  But  the  day  came  at  last,  and 
■  the  exhibition  was  a  masterpiece. 

It  might  have  seemed  that  the  abject  condition  of  the 
Spanish  provinces — desolate,  mendicant,  despairing — would 
render  holiday  making  impossible.  But  although  almost 
every  vestige  of  the  ancient  institutions  had  vanished  from 
the  obedient  Netherlands  as  a  reward  for  their  obedience  ; 
although  to  civil  and  religious  liberty,  law,  order,  and  a 
thriving  commercial  and  manufacturing  existence,  such  as 
had  been  rarely  witnessed  in  the  world,  had  succeeded  the 
absolute  tyranny  of  Jesuits,  universal  beggary,  and  a  peren¬ 
nial  military  mutiny — setting  Government  at  defiance  and 

62  Yol.  I.  of  tliis  work,  p.  371.  Brooke’s  Sidney.  1G,  seqq. 

63  Reyd,  ix.  220-222.  Bor,  III.  782. 


286 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXX. 


plundering  the  people — there  was  one  faithful  comforter  who 
never  deserted  Belgica,  and  that  was  Rhetoric. 

Neither  the  magnificence  llor  the  pedantry  of  the  spec¬ 
tacles  by  which  the  entry  of  the  mild  and  inefficient 
Ernest  into  Brussels  and  Antwerp  was  now  solemnized  had 
ever  been  surpassed.  The  town  councils,  stimulated  by  hopes 
absolutely  without  foundation  as  to  great  results  to  follow  the 
advent  of  the  emperor’s  brother,  had  voted  large  sums  and 
consumed  many  days  in  anxious  deliberation  upon  the  manner 
in  which  they  should  be  expended  so  as  most  to  redound  to 
the  honour  of  Ernest  and  the  reputation  of  the  country. 

In  place  of  the  “  bloody  tragedies  of  burning,  murdering, 
and  ravishing,”  of  which  the  provinces  had  so  long  been  the 
theatre,  it  was  resolved  that  u  Rhetoric’s  sweet  comedies, 
amorous  jests,  and  farces,”  should  gladden  all  eyes  and  hearts.64 
A  stately  procession  of  knights  and  burghers  in  historical  and 
mythological  costumes,  followed  by  ships,  dromedaries,  ele¬ 
phants,  whales,  giants,  dragons,  and  other  wonders  of  the  sea 
and  shore,  escorted  the  archduke  into  the  city.  Every  street 
and  square  was  filled  with  triumphal  arches,  statues  and  plat¬ 
forms,  on  which  the  most  ingenious  and  thoroughly  classical 
living  pictures  were  exhibited.  There  was  hardly  an  eminent 
deity  of  Olympus,  or  hero  of  ancient  history,  that  was  not 
revived  and  made  visible  to  mortal  eyes  in  the  person  of 
Ernestus  of  Austria. 

On  a  framework  fifty-five  feet  high  and  thirty-three  feet 
in  breadth  he  was  represented  as  Apollo  hurling  his  darts  at 
an  enormous  Python,  under  one  of  whose  fore-paws  struggled 
an  unfortunate  burgher,  while  the  other  clutched  a  whole 
city  ;  Tellus,  meantime,  with  her  tower  on  her  head,  kneeling 
anxious  and  imploring  at  the  feet  of  her  deliverer.  On  ano¬ 
ther  stage  Ernest  assumed  the  shape  of  Perseus  ;  Belgica 
that  of  the  bound  and  despairing  Andromeda.  On  a  third, 


64  Descriptio  et  Explicatio  pegma- 
torum  ct  spectaculorum  quae  Bruxellao 
cxhibita  fuere  sub  ingressum  Seremi 
principis  Ernesti,  &c.  Bruxellse,  1593 
(S.  V.)  Houwaert’s  Moralisatie  op 


de  Komst  van  do  liooghgeboren, 
maclitigen  en  seer  doorlugtigen  V orst 
Ernesto,  &c.  Bruessel,  by  Jan  Mom- 
maert,  1594. 


1594.  PAGEANT  IN  HONOUR  OF  ERNEST.  287 

the  interior  of  Etna  was  revealed,  when  Vulcan  was  seen 
urging  his  Cyclops  to  forge  for  Ernest  their  most  tremendous 
thunderbolts  with  which  to  smite  the  foes  of  the  provinces, 
those  enemies  being  of  course  the  English  and  the  Hol¬ 
landers.  Venus,  the  while,  timidly  presented  an  arrow  to 
her  husband,  which  he  was  requested  to  sharpen,  in  order 
that  when  the  wars  were  over  Cupid  therewith  might  pierce 
the  heart  of  some  beautiful  virgin,  whose  charms  should  re¬ 
ward  Ernest — fortunately  for  the  female  world,  still  a  bache¬ 
lor — for  his  victories  and  his  toils.00 

The  walls  of  every  house  were  hung  with  classic  emblems 
and  inscribed  with  Latin  verses.  All  the  pedagogues  of  Brus¬ 
sels  and  Antwerp  had  been  at  work  for  months,  determined 
to  amaze  the  world  with  their  dithyrambics  and  acrostics, 
and  they  had  outdone  themselves. 

Moreover,  in  addition  to  all  these  theatrical  spectacles  and 
pompous  processions — accompanied  as  they  were  by  blazing 
tar-barrels,  flying  dragons,  and  leagues  ot  flaring  torches — 
John  Baptist,  who  had  been  director-in-chief  of  all  the  shows 
successively  arranged  to  welcome  Don  John  of  Austria,  Arch¬ 
duke  Matthias,  Francis  of  Alencon,  and  even  'William  of 
Orange,  into  the  capital,  had  prepared  a  feast  of  a  specially 
intellectual  character  for  the  new  governor-general. 

The  pedant,  according  to  his  own  account,  so  soon  as  the 
approach  of  Ernest  had  been  announced,  fell  straightway 
into  a  trance.66  While  he  was  in  that  condition,  a  beautiful 
female  apparition  floated  before  his  eyes,  and,  on  being 
questioned,  announced  her  name  to  be  Moralization.  John 
Baptist  begged  her  to  inform  him  whether  it  were  true,  as 
had  been  stated,  that  Jupiter  had  just  sent  Mercury  to  the  . 
Netherlands.  The  phantom,  correcting  his  mistake,  observed 
that  the  king  of  gods  and  men  had  not  sent  Hermes  but  the 
Archduke  Ernestus,  beloved  of  the  three  Graces,  favourite  ot 
the  nine  Muses,  and,  in  addition  to  these  advantages,  nephew 
and  brother-in-law  of  the  King  of  Spain,  to  the  relief  of  the 
suffering  provinces.  The  Netherlands,  it  was  true,  for  their 

65  Ilouwaert’s  Moralisatie,  &c.,  ubi  sup .  66  Ibid. 


288 


Chap.  XXX. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


religions  infidelity,  had  justly  incurred  great  disasters  and 
misery  ;  hut  benignant  Jove,  who,  to  the  imagination  of  this 
excited  Fleming,  seemed  to  have  been  converted  to  Catho¬ 
licism  while  still  governing  the  universe,  had  now  sent  them 
in  mercy  a  deliverer.  The  archduke  would  speedily  relieve 
“  bleeding  Belgica  ”  from  her  sufferings,  bind  up  her  wounds, 
and  annihilate  her  enemies.  The  spirit  further  informed  the 
poet  that  the  forests  of  the  Low  Countries— so  long  infested 
by  brigands,  wood-beggars,  and  malefactors  of  all  kinds— 
would  thenceforth  swarm  with  “  nymphs,  rabbits,  hares,  and 
animals  of  that  nature.”  67 

A  vision  of  the  conquering  Ernest,  attended  by  “eight- 
and-twenty  noble  and  pleasant  females,  marching  two  and 
two,  half  naked,  each  holding  a  torch  in  one  hand  and  a 
laurel- wreath  in  the  other,”  now  swept  before  the  dreamer’s 
eyes.68  He  naturally  requested  the  “  discreet  spirit  ”  to  men¬ 
tion  the  names  of  this  bevy  of  imperfectly  attired  ladies 
thronging  so  lovingly  around  the  fortunate  aichduke,  and 
was  told  that  “  they  were  the  eight-and-twenty  virtues  which 
chiefly  characterized  his  serene  Highness.”  69  Prominent  in 
this  long  list,  and  they  were  all  faithfully  enumerated,  were 
Philosophy,  Audacity,  Acrimony,  Virility,  Equity,  Piety,  Velo¬ 
city,  and  Alacrity.70  The  two  last-mentioned  qualities  could 
hardly  be  attributed  to  the  archduke  in  his  decrepit  condi¬ 
tion,  except  in  an  intensely  mythological  sense.  Cei  tainl} , 
they  would  have  been  highly  useful  virtues  to  him  at  that 
moment.  The  prince  who  had  just  taken  Gertruydenberg, 


67  “  In  plaetse  dat  de  bosschen  plachten  te.sijne 
Vol  knevelaers  en  roovers  in  alle  quartieren 
Soo  waren  sy  wederom  ten  selven  termijne 
Vol  Nyraphen,  hasen,  conijnen  en  ghelijcke 


Drom  de  Nymphe  heeft  gerespondeert 
De  agt  en  twintig  Nymphen  die  met 


Dieren. 


Houwaert’s  Moralisatie,  &c. 


v 


vreughden 

Twee  en  twee  tegader  hebben  gemarsclieert 
Dat  sijn  des  doolugtigen  Princen  deugh- 
den.”  &c. 


Ibid. 


68  Ibid. 

69  “  Aclit  en  twintig  edel  Nymphen  playsant 


Sach  ich  voor  den  prince  liaer  vertoonen 


70  “  En  i  dese  deughtlijcke  Nymphen  dit  sijn 


De  namen  van  die  nymphen  weirt  gehono- 
reert, 


Toen  spraeck  ick,  0  Vrindinne,  wilt  my 
noch  bedien 


En  warom  dat  sy  hem  liebben  geconvoy- 
eert? 


Die  ick  voort,  by,  en  achter  Ernestum 
gesien, 


genaempt 

Philosophia  en  Intelligent^ 

Audacia  en  Magnanimitas  unbeschaempt 

Acrimonia  en  Virilitas 

Securitas  en  Clementia 

Firmitudo  en  Velocitas 

Alacritas  en  Pictatis  abundantia 

Potentia  en  Opportunitas  gheheesen.”  A  c.  _ 


Ibid. 


1594.  VISION  OF  JOHN  BAPTIST  HOUWAERTS.  289 

and  was  then  besieging  Groningen,  was  manifesting  his  share 
of  audacity,  velocity,  and  other  good  gifts  on  even  a  wider 
platform  than  that  erected  for  Ernest  by  John  Baptist 
Houwaerts  ;  and  there  was  an  admirable  opportunity  for 
both  to  develope  their  respective  characteristics  for  the  world's 
judgment. 

Meantime  the  impersonation  of  the  gentle  and  very  gouty 
invalid  as  Apollo,  as  Perseus,  as  the  feather-heeled  Mercury, 
was  highly  applauded  by  the  burghers  of  Brussels. 

And  so  the  dreamer  dreamed  on,  and  the  discreet  nymph 
continued  to  discourse,  until  J ohn  Baptist,  starting  suddenly 
from  his  trance  beheld  that  it  was  all  a  truth  and  no  vision. 
Ernest  was  really  about  to  enter  the  Netherlands,  and  with 
him  the  millennium.  The  pedant  therefore  proceeded  to 
his  desk,  and  straightway  composed  the  very  worst  poem  that 
had  ever  been  written  in  any  language,  even  Flemish. 

There  were  thousands  of  lines  in  it,  and  not  a  line  without 
a  god  or  a  goddess. 

Mars,  Nemesis,  and  Ate,  Pluto,  Bhadamanthus,  and  Minos, 
the  Fates  and  the  Furies,  together  with  Charon,  Calumnia, 
Bellona,  and  all  such  objectionable  divinities,  were  requested 
to  disappear  for  ever  from  the  Low  Countries  ;  while  in  their 
stead  were  confidently  invoked  J upiter,  Apollo,  Triptolemus, 
and  last,  though  not  least,  Rhetorica.71 

Enough  has  been  said  of  this  raree-show  to  weary  the 
reader's  patience,  but  not  more  than  enough  to  show  the  docile 
and  enervated  nature  of  this  portion  of  a  people  who  had  lost 
everything  for  which  men  cherish  their  fatherland,  but  who 
could  still  find  relief — after  thirty  years  of  horrible  civil  war 
— in  painted  pageantry,  Latin  versification,  and  the  classical 
dictionary. 

Yet  there  was  nothing  much  more  important  achieved  by 
the  archduke  in  the  brief  period  for  which  his  adminis¬ 
tration  was  destined  to  endure.  Three  phenomena  chiefly 
marked  his  reign,  but  his  own  part  in  the  three  was  rather 
a  passive  than  an  active  one — mutiny,  assassination,  and 

71  Ilouwaert’s  Moralsatie,  &c. 


VOL.  III. — U 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXX. 


290 


negotiation — tlie  two  last  attempted  on  a  considerable  scale 
but  ending  abortively. 

It  is  impossible  to  exaggerate  the  misery  of  the  obedient 
provinces  at  this  epoch.  The  insane  attempt  of  the  King  of 
Spain,  with  such  utterly  inadequate  machinery,  to  conquer 
the  world  has  been  sufficiently  dilated  upon.  The  Spanish 
and  Italian  and  Walloon  soldiers  were  starving  in  Brabant  and 
Flanders  in  order  that  Spanish  gold  might  be  poured  into  the 
bottomless  pit  of  the  Holy  League  in  France.72 

The  mutiny  that  had  broken  forth  the  preceding  year  in 
Artois  and  Hainault  was  now  continued  on  a  vast  scale 
in  Brabant.  Never  had  that  national  institution — a  Spanish 


12  it  js  instructive  to  know  the  exact  sums  of  money  regularly  expended  "by 
the  King  of  Spain  each  month,  at  this  period,  in  France  and  the  Netherlands. 
In  Flanders  and  Friesland  was  an 

army  0f  .  23,952  men,  costing  per  month  $206,431 


The  army  of  France  was  estimated  at  18,921 

Total . .  42,873 

Certain  individuals,  very  few  in 
number,  maintained  in  Franco^ 

Besides  the  above,  all  supplied  from 
Spain,  there  were  maintained  by 
contributions,  aids,  and  licenses 
in  the  provinces 
Expenses  of  navy 


» 


» 


175,370 


42,360 


6,715 


yy 


yy 

yy 


38,239 
10,958 

.  $473,358 

Relacion  delo  que  monta  lapaga  de  los  exercitos  que  su  Mag*,  entretiene 
en  Flandes,  Brabante,  Frisia,  y  Francia,  1593.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 

By  another  paper  it  appears  at  this  time  there  were  serving  the  King  o 
Spain  in  France  and  the  Netherlands- 


Total  per  month 


German  infantry — Soldiers 

Officers 


Italian  infantry — Soldiers 
Officers 


14,994 

1,298 

16,292 

3,397 

423 


3,820 

(Arch,  de  Simancas,  Anno  1594,  MS.) 


0  These  favoured  personages  were— 

Duke  of  Mayenno 

Duke  of  Guise . 

Balagny 

Duke  of  Aumale 
M.  de  Rosne 

M.  de  St.  Pol  and  his  cavalry 
Certain  gentlemen  in  Picardy 
Governor  of  La  Fere  . . 


per  month,  $12,000 
6,000 
„  7,200 

1,800 
1,800 
9,960 
2,400 

,  1,200 


$42, SCO 


1594  MUTINY  OF  SPANISH  TROOPS.  291 

mutiny — been  more  thoroughly  organized,  more  completely 
carried  out  in  all  its  details.  All  that  was  left  of  the  famous 
SjDanish  discipline  and  military  science  in  this  their  period  of 
rapid  decay,  seemed  monopolized  by  the  mutineers.  Some 
two  thousand  choice  troops  (horse  and  foot),  Italians  and 
Spanish,  took  possession  of  two  considerable  cities,  Sichem 
and  Arschot,  and  ultimately  concentrated  themselves  at 
Sichem,  which  they  thoroughly  fortified.  Having  chosen 
their  Eletto  and  other  officers  they  proceeded  regularly 
to  business.  To  the  rallying  point  came  disaffected  troops  of 
all  nations  from  far  and  near.  Never  since  the  beginning 
of  the  great  war  had  there  been  so  extensive  a  military 
rebellion,  nor  one  in  which  so  many  veteran  officers,  colonels, 
captains,  and  subalterns  took  part.  The  army  of  Philip  had 
at  last  grown  more  dangerous  to  himself  than  to  the  Hol¬ 
landers. 

The  council  at  Brussels  deliberated  anxiously  upon  the 
course  to  be  pursued,  and  it  was  decided  at  last  to  negotiate 
with  instead  of  attacking  them.  But  it  was  soon  found  that 
the  mutineers  were  as  hard  to  deal  with  as  were  the  repub¬ 
licans  on  the  other  side  the  border.  They  refused  to  hear  of 
anything  short  of  complete  payment  of  the  enormous  arrears 
due  to  them,  with  thorough  guarantees  and  hostages  that  any 
agreement  made  between  themselves  and  the  archduke 
should  be  punctually  carried  out.  Meanwhile  they  ravaged 
the  country  far  and  near,  and  levied  their  contributions  on 
towns  and  villages,  up  to  the  very  walls  of  Brussels,  and 
before  the  very  eyes  of  the  viceroy. 

Moreover  they  entered  into  negotiation  with  Prince  Maurice 
of  Nassau,  not  offering  to  enlist  under  his  flag,  but  asking  for 
protection  against  the  king  in  exchange  for  a  pledge  mean¬ 
while  not  to  serve  his  cause.  At  last  the  archduke  plucked 
up  a  heart  and  sent  some  troops  against  the  rebels,  who  had 
constructed  two  forts  on  the  river  Demer  near  the  city  of 
Sichem.  In  vain  Yelasco,  commander  of  the  expedition, 
endeavoured  to  cut  off  the  supplies  for  these  redoubts.  The 
vigour  and  audacity  of  the  rebel  cavalry  made  the  process 


CnAP.  XXX. 


902  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 

impossible.  Velasco  then  attempted  to  storm  the  lesser 
stronghold  of  the  two,  hut  was  repulsed  with  the  loss  of  two 
hundred  killed.  Among  these  were  many  officers,  one  of 
whom,  Captain  Porto  Carrero,  was  a  near  relative  of  Puentes. 
After  a  siege,  Velasco,  who  was  a  marshal  of  the  camp  of 
considerable  distinction,  succeeded  in  driving  the  mutineers 
out  of  the  forts  ;  who,  finding  their  position  thus  weakened, 
renewed  their  negotiations  with  Maurice.  They  at  last 
obtained  permission  from  the  prince  to  remain  under  the 
protection  of  Gertruydenberg  and  Breda  until  they  could 
ascertain  what  decision  the  archduke  would  take.  More  they 
did  not  ask  of  Maurice,  nor  did  he  require  more  of  them.  . 

The  mutiny,  thus  described  in  a  few  lines,  had  occupied 
nearly  a  year,  and  had  done  much  to  paralyze  for  that  period 
December  all  r°yal  operations  in  the  Netherlands.  In 
1594  ’  December  the  rebellious  troops  marched  out  of 

Sichem  in  perfect  order,  and  came  to  Langstraet  within  the 
territory  of  the  republic.73 

The  archduke  now  finding  himself  fairly  obliged  to  treat 
with  them  sent  an  offer  of  the  same  terms  which  had  been 
proposed  to  mutineers  on  previous  occasions.  At  first.  they 
flatly  refused  to  negotiate  at  all,  but  at  last,  with  the  permission 
of  Maurice,  who  conducted  himself  throughout  with  scrupulous 
delicacy,  and  made  no  attempts  to  induce  them  to  violate 
their  allegiance  to  the  king,  they  received  Count  Belgioso, 
the  envoy  of  the  archduke.  They  held  out  for  payment  of 
all  their  arrears  up  to  the  last  farthing,  and  insisted  on  a 
hostage  of  rank  until  the  debt  should  be  discharged.  Full 
forgiveness  of  their  rebellious  proceedings  was  added  as  a 
matter  of  course.  Their  terms  were  accepted,  and  Francisco 
Padiglia'was  assigned  as  a  hostage.  They  then  established 
themselves,  according  to  agreement,  at  Tirlemont,  which  they 
were  allowed  to  fortify  at  the  expense  of  the  province  and  to 
hold  until  the  money  for  their  back  wages  could  be  scraped 
together.  Meantime  they  received  daily  wages  and  rations 

73  Bentivoglio,  P.  III.  lib.  i.  399, 400.  Meteren,  340, 341.  Coloma,  vii.  150™, 
seqq. 


1594.  PHILIP’S  DESIGNS  ON  THE  ENGLISH  FLEET.  293 

from  the  Government  at  Brussels,  including  thirty  stivers  a 
day  for  each  horseman,  thirteen  crowns  a  day  for  the  Eletto, 
and  ten  crowns  a  day  for  each  counsellor,  making  in  all  five 
hundred  crowns  a  day.  And  here  they  remained,  living 
exceedingly  at  their  ease  and  enjoying  a  life  of  leisure  for 
eighteen  months,  and  until  long  after  the  death  of  the  arch¬ 
duke,  for  it  was  not  until  the  administration  of  Cardinal 
Albert  that  the  funds,  amounting  to  three  hundred  and  sixty 
thousand  crowns,  could  he  collected.74 

These  were  the  chief  military  exploits  of  the  podagric 
Perseus  in  behalf  the  Flemish  Andromeda. 

A  very  daring  adventure  was  however  proposed  to  the 
archduke.  Philip  calmly  suggested  that  an  expedition  should 
he  rapidly  fitted  out  in  Dunkirk,  which  should  cross  the 
channel,  ascend  the  Thames  as  far  as  Rochester,  and  hum 
the  English  fleet.  “  I  am  informed  by  persons  well  acquainted 
with  the  English  coast/’  said  the  king,  u  that  it  would  he  an 
easy  matter  for  a  few  quick-sailing  vessels  to  accomplish  this. 
Two  or  three  thousand  soldiers  might  he  landed  at  Rochester 
who  might  bum  or  sink  all  the  unarmed  vessels  they  could 
find  there,  and  the  expedition  could  return  and  sail  off  again 
before  the  people  of  the  country  could  collect  in  sufficient 
numbers  to  do  them  any  damage.”  The  archduke  was 
instructed  to  consult  with  Fuentes  and  Ybarra  as  to  whether 
this  little  matter,  thus  parenthetically  indicated,  could  be 
accomplished  without  too  much  risk  and  trouble.75 

Certainly  it  would  seem  as  if  the  king  believed  in  the 
audacity,  virility,  velocity,  alacrity,  and  the  rest  of  the  twenty- 
eight  virtues  of  his  governor-general,  even  more  seriously 
than  did  John  Baptist  Houwaerts.  The  unfortunate  archduke 
would  have  needed  to  be,  in  all  earnestness,  a  mythological 
demigod  to  do  the  work  required  of  him.  With  the  best 
part  of  his  army  formally  maintained  by  him  in  recognised 
mutiny,  with  the  great  cities  of  the  Netherlands  yielding 
themselves  to  the  republic  with  hardly  an  attempt  on  the 

74  Bentivoglio,  et  al.,  ubi  sup. 

75  Philip  to  Ernest,  19  Feb.  1594.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 


294 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXX. 


part  of  the  royal  forces  to  relieve  them,  and  with  the  country 
which  he  was  supposed  to  govern,  the  very  centre  of  the 
obedient  provinces,  ruined,  sacked,  eaten  up  by  the  soldiers 
of  Spain  ;  villages,  farmhouses,  gentlemen's  castles,  churches 
plundered  ;  the  male  population  exposed  to  daily  butchery, 
and  the  women  to  outrages  worse  than  death  ;7S  it  seemed 
like  the  bitterest  irony  to  propose  that  he  should  seize  that 
moment  to  outwit  the  English  and  Dutch  sea-kings  who  were 
perpetually  cruising  in  the  channel,  and  to  undertake  a 
“  beard-singeing  ”  expedition  such  as  even  the  dare-devil 
Drake  would  hardly  have  attempted. 

Such  madcap  experiments  might  perhaps  one  day,  in  the 
distant  future,  be  tried  with  reasonable  success,  but  hardly 
at  the  beck  of  a  Spanish  king  sitting  in  his  easy  chair  a 
thousand  miles  off,  nor  indeed  by  the  servants  of  any  king 
whatever. 

The  plots  of  murder  arranged  in  Brussels  during  this 
administration  were  on  a  far  more  extensive  scale  than  were 
the  military  plans. 

The  Count  of  Fuentes,  general  superintendant  of  foreign 
affairs,  was  especially  charged  with  the  department  of  assassi¬ 
nation.  This  office  was  no  sinecure;  for  it  involved  much 
correspondence,  and  required  great  personal  attention  to 
minute  details.  Philip,  a  consummate  artist  in  this  branch 
of  industry,  had  laid  out  a  good  deal  of  such  work  which 
he  thought  could  best  be  carried  out  in  and  from  the  Nether¬ 
lands.  Especially  it  was  desirable  to  take  off,  by  poison  or 


16  Such  pictures  are  painted  not 
only  by  republican  contemporaries, 
but  by  the  governors  and  grandees 
of  the  obedient  provinces.  “  Como 
va  arruinado,”  wrote  the  royal  gover¬ 
nor  of  Hainault,  Prince  Chimay,  to 
the  king,  “  comido,  saqueado,  saque- 
aran  las  aldeas,  casas  de  gentiles 
hombres  y  iglesias,  se  matan  los  hom- 
bres,  se  desvirgen  las  mozas  y  mugeres 
y  otros  mil  maldades  que  se  cometen 
cada  dia  a  mi  pesar  y  sin  que  de  ellas 
se  lia,  hecho  alguna  justicia  aunque 
me  soy  quejado  y  lamentado  muchas 
veces.” — Chimay  to  Philip,  17  March. 


1574.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 

“  As  to  getting  a  good  deal  of  money 
out  of  the  provinces  here  by  gentle¬ 
ness  and  persuasion,  according  to  your 
Majesty’s  suggestion,”  wrote  the  arch¬ 
duke,  “your  Majesty  must  be  unde¬ 
ceived.  "  Nothing  can  be  got  from  the 
pro vinces, because  the  whole  patrimony 
thereof  is  consumed,  the  private  for¬ 
tunes  are  destroyed,  and  everything  is 
in  such  a  brittle  condition  that  nothing 
whatever  can  be  undertaken  in  these 
regions. Instruccion  que  el  Arch°.ue 
Ernesto  dio  al  Bon  Max  Dietriclistein, 
12  April,  1594.  (Ibid.) 


1594.  PHILIP’S  ASSASSINATION  PROJECTS.  295 

otherwise,  Henry  IV.,  Queen  Elizabeth,  Maurice  of  Nassau, 
Olden-Barneveld,  St.  Aldegonde,  and  other  less  conspicuous 
personages. 

Henry’s  physician-in-chief,  He  la  Riviere,  was  at  that  time 
mainly  occupied  with  devising  antidotes  to  poison,  which  he 
well  knew  was  offered  to  his  master  on  frequent  occasions, 
and’  in  the  most  insidious  ways.  Andrada,  the  famous 
Portuguese  poisoner,  amongst  others  is  said,  under  direc¬ 
tion  of  Fuentes  and  Ybarra,  to  have  attempted  his  life  by  a 
nosegay  of  roses  impregnated  with  so  subtle  a  powder  that 
its  smell  alone  was  relied  upon  to  cause  death,"  and  He  la 
Riviere  was  doing  his  best  to  search  for  a  famous  Saxon  drug, 
called  fable-powder,  as  a  counter-poison.  u  The  Turk  alarms 
-  us,  and  well  he  may,”  said  a  diplomatic  agent  of  Henry,  Ubuc 
the  Spaniard  allows  us  not  to  think  of  the  Turk.  And  what 
a  strange  manner  is  this  to  exercise  one’s  enmities  and 
vengeance  by  having  recourse  to  such  damnable  artifices, 
after  force  and  arms  have  not  succeeded,  and  to  attack  the 
person  of  princes  by  poisonings  and  assassinations. 

A  most  elaborate  attempt  upon  the  life  of  Queen  Elizabeth 
early  in  this  year  came  near  being  successful.  A  ceitain 
Portuguese  Jew,  Hr.  Lopez,  had  for  some  time  been  hei 
physician-in-ordinary.  He  had  first  been  received  into 
her  service  on  the  recommendation  of  Hon  Antonio,  the 
pretender,  and  had  the  reputation  of  great  learning  and  skill. 
With  this  man  Count  Fuentes  and  Stephen  Ybarra,  chief  of 
the  financial  department  at  Brussels, 'had  a  secret  understand¬ 
ing.  Their  chief  agent  was  Emanuel  Andrada,  who  was  also 
in  close  communication  with  Bernardino  de  Mendoza  and 
other  leading  personages  of  the  Spanish  court.  Two  years 
previously,  Philip,  by  the  hands  of  Andrada,  had  sent  a  very 
valuable  ring  of  rubies  and  diamonds  as  a  present  to  Lopez, 
and  the  doctor  had  bound  himself  to  do  any  service  for  the 
King  of  Spain  that  might  be  required  of  him.  Andrada 
accordingly  wrote  to  Mendoza  that  he  had  gained  over  this 
eminent -physician,  but  that  as  Lopez  was  poor  and  laden  with 
«  Meteren,  xvi.  334.  78  Bongar’s  Lettres,  p.  371. 


296 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXX. 


debt,  a  high  price  would  be  required  for  bis  work.  Hereupon 
Fuentes  received  orders  from  the  King  of  Spain  to  give  the 
Jew  all  that  be  could  in  reason  demand,  if  be  would  undertake 
to  poison  tbe  queen.79 

It  now  became  necessary  to  handle  tbe  matter  with  great 
delicacy,  and  Fuentes  and  Ybarra  entered  accordingly  into  a 
correspondence,  not  with  Lopez,  but  with  a  certain  Ferrara  de 
Gama.  These  letters  were  entrusted  to  one  Emanuel  Lewis 
de  Tinoco,  secretly  informed  of  tbe  plot,  for  delivery  to 
Ferrara.  Fuentes  charged  Tinoco  to  cause  Ferrara  to  en¬ 
courage  Lopez  to  poison  her  Majesty  of  England,  that  they 
might  all  have  u  a  merry  Easter/'80  Lopez  was  likewise 
requested  to  inform  tbe  King  of  Spain  when  be  thought  be 
could  accomplish  tbe  task.  Tbe  doctor  ultimately  agreed  to 
do  tbe  deed  for  fifty  thousand  crowns,  but  as  be  bad  daughters 
and  was  an  affectionate  parent,  be  stipulated  for  a  handsome 
provision  in  marriage  for  those  young  ladies.81  Tbe  terms 
were  accepted,  but  Lopez  wished  to  be  assured  of  tbe  money 
first. 

“  Having  once  undertaken  tbe  work,"  said  Lord  Burghley, 
if  be  it  were,  u  be  was  so  greedy  to  perform  it  that  be  would 
ask  Ferrara  every  day,  ‘  When  will  tbe  money  come  P  I  am 
ready  to  do  tbe  service  if  tbe  answer  were  come  out  of 
Spain.'"82 

But  Philip,  as  has  been  often  seen,  was  on  principle  averse 
to  paying  for  work  before  it  bad  been  done.  Some  delay 
occurring,  and  tbe  secret,  thus  confided  to  so  many,  having 
floated  as  it  were  imperceptibly  into  tbe  air,  Tinoco  was 
arrested  on  suspicion  before  he  bad  been  able  to  deliver  tbe 
letters  of  Fuentes  and  Ybarra  to  Ferrara,  for  Ferrara,  too,  bad 
been  imprisoned  before  tbe  arrival  of  Tinoco.  Tbe  whole 
correspondence  was  discovered,  and  both  Ferrara  and  Tinoco 
confessed  tbe  plot.  Lopez,  when  first  arrested,  denied  bis 


79  Account  of  Dr.  Lopez’s  treason — 
doubtless  by  Lord  Burghley — in  Mur- 
din’s  State  Papers,  ii.  669-675.  Me- 
teren,  xvi.  334,  seqq.  Reyd,  ix.  247,  248. 

80  Account  of  Dr.  Lopez’s  treason, 
&c. 


81  “And  further  to  set  him  on,  he 
was  to  be  put  in  mind  that  he  had 
daughters  to  marry, for  whom  the  king 
would  provide,  and  what  great  honours 
and  rewards  he  should  have.” — Ibid. 

82  Ibid. 


1594. 


EXECUTION  OF  THE  TRAITORS. 


297 


guilt  very  stoutly,  but  being  confronted  with  Ferrara,  who 
told  the  whole  story  to  his  face  in  presence  of  the  judges,  he 
at  last  avowed  the  crime.83 

They  were  all  condemned,  executed,  and  quartered  at 
London  in  the  spring  of  1594.  The  queen  wished  to  send  a 
special  envoy  to  the  archduke  at  Brussels,  to  complain  that 
Secretary  of  State  Cristoval  de  Moura,  Count  Fuentes,  and 
Finance  Minister  Ybarra — all  three  then  immediately  about 
his  person — were  thus  implicated  in  the  plot  against  her  life, 
to  demand  their  punishment,  or  else,  in  case  of  refusal,  to 
convict  the  king  and  the  archduke  as  accomplices  in  the 
crime.84  Safe  conduct  was  requested  for  such  an  envoy, 
which  was  refused  by  Ernest  as  an  insulting  proposition  both 
to  his  uncle  and  himself.  The  queen  accordingly  sent  word 
to  President  Richardot  by  one  of  her  council,  that  the  whole 
story  would  be  published,  and  this  was  accordingly  done.85 

Early  in  the  spring  of  this  same  year,  a  certain  Renichon, 
priest  and  schoolmaster  of  Namur,  was  summoned  from  his 
school  to  a  private  interview  with  Count  Berlaymont.  That 
nobleman  very  secretly  informed  the  priest  that  the  King  of 
Spain  wished  to  make  use  of  him  in  an  affair  of  great  impor¬ 
tance,  and  one  which  would  be  very  profitable  to  himself. 
The  pair  then  went  together  to  Brussels,  and  proceeded 


83  Account  of  Dr.  Lopez’s  treason. 
Meteren,  Reyd,  ubi  sup.  84  Reyd,  248. 

85  Ibid.  “  But  because  by  fame  and 
hearsay, ’’saystliewriterof  the  account, 
no  doubt  LordBurgliley,  “things  take 
not  always  a  true  report,  and  I  know 
the  quality  of  those  treasons  are  of  the 
sort  so  heinous  as  all  sorts  of  men  de¬ 
sire  to  be  truly  informed  of  the  same, 
I  have  set  down  a  plain  and  short  de¬ 
claration  of  the  treason  of  this  perjured 
murthering  traitor,  without  alleging 
proofs,  which  maybe  done  hereafter  at 
large, . and  also  that  the  prac¬ 

tices  were  set  at  work,  as  manifestly 
appeared  to  autlientical  proof,  by  him 
who  either  in  respect  of  his  calling  or 
of  her  Maj  esty ’s  deserving,  should  1  east 
of  all  others  have  consented  to  so  un- 
princely  an  act.  Yet  it  is  a  strange 
thing  to  consider,  that  in  so  evident 
a  matter, touching  as virtuous  and  sove¬ 


reign  a  princess  as  ever  the  world  did 
enjoy,  we  are  loath,  in  reverend  regard 
of  the  name  and  title  of  royal  and 
supreme  dignity,  to  ham  him  named, 
othemcise  than  cannot  be  avoided  in  the 
simple  narration  of  the  cause,  and  in¬ 
deed,  if  I  may  utter  my  conceit,  a 
greater  indignity  nor  breach  of  honour 
never  was  given  to  that  high  degree, 
violatedby  the  hands  of  him  who  should 
chiefly  sustain  that  calling.  I  leave  him 
to  the  judgment  of  God,  Kingof  kings, 
who  taketh  account  of  their  doings. 

.  .  .  What  may  be  thought  of  them 
who  use  so  high,  so  holy,  so  reverent 
a  thing  (the  profession  of  religion)  to 
cloke  ambition,  revenge,  and  wicked 
practices  ?  Truly  the  age  wherein  we 
are  born  shall  endure  hereafter  note  of 
reproach  for  this  kind  of  impiety  and 
profanation.”  Most  truly,  0  Lord 
High  Treasurer! 


298  the  united  Netherlands.  chap.  xxx. 

straightway  to  the  palace.  They  were  secretly  admitted  to 
the  apartments  of*  the  archduke,  hut  the  priest,  meaning  to 
follow  his  conductor  into  the  private  chamber,  where  he 
pretended  to  recognize  the  person  of  Ernest,  was  refused 
admittance.  The  door  was,  however,  not  entirely  closed, 
and  he  heard,  as  he  declared,  the  conversation  between  his 
Highness  and  Berlaymont,  which  was  carried  on  partly  in 
Latin  and  partly  in  Spanish.  He  heard  them  discussing  the 
question — so  he  stated — of  the  recompense  to  be  awarded 
for  the  business  about  to  be  undertaken,  and  after  a  brief 
conversation,  distinctly  understood  the  archduke  to  say,  as 
the  count  was  approaching  the  door,  “I  will  satisfy  him 
abundantly  and  with  interest/’ s'3 

Berlaymont  then  invited  his  clerical  guest  to  supper — so 
ran  his  statement — and,  after  that  repast  was  finished,  in¬ 
formed  him  that  he  was  requested  by  the  archduke  to  kill 
Prince  Maurice  of  Nassau.  For  this  piece  of  work  he  was  to 
receive  one  hundred  Philip-dollars  in  hand,  and  fifteen 
thousand  more,  which  were  lying,  ready  for  him,  so  soon  as 
the  deed  should  be  done. 

The  schoolmaster  at  first  objected  to  the  enterprise,  but 
ultimately  yielded  to  the  persuasions  of  the  count.  He  wTas 
informed  that  Maurice  was  a  friendly,  familiar  gentleman, 
and  that  there  would  be  opportunities  enough  for  carrying 
out  the  project  if  he  took  his  time.  He  was  to  buy  a  good 
pair  of  pistols  and  remove  to  the  Hague,  where  he  was  to  set 
up  a  school,  and  wait  for  the  arrival  of  his  accomplices,  of 
whom  there  were  six.  Berlaymont  then  caused  to  be  sum¬ 
moned  and  introduced  to  the  pedagogue  a  man  whom  he 
described  as  one  of  the  six.  The  new  comer,  hearing  that 
Reniclion  had  agreed  to  the  propositions  made  to  him, 
hailed  him  cordially  as  comrade  and  promised  to  follow  him 
very  soon  into  Holland.  Berlaymont  then  observed  that 
there  were  several  personages  to  be  made  away  with,  besides 
Prince  Maurice — especially  Barneveld  and  St.  Aldegonde — 

86  Bor,  III.  815,  817.  Reyd,  ix.  223-228.  Meteren,  xvi.  335.  “  Cumulate 
et  largo  foenore  satisfaciam.” 


1594. 


PLOT  AGAINST  PRINCE  MAURICE. 


299 


and  that  the  six  'assassins  had,  since  the  time  of  the  Duke  of 
Parma,  been  kept  in  the  pay  of  the  King  of  Spain  as  nobles, 
to  he  employed  as  occasion  should  serve. 

His  new  comrade  accompanied  Kenichon  to  the  canal  boat, 
conversing  by  the  way,  and  informed  him  that  they  were 
both  to  he  sent  to  Leyden  in  order  to  entice  away  and  murder 
the  young  brother  of  Maurice,  Frederic  Henry,  then  at  school 
at  that  place,  even  as  Philip  William,  eldest  of  all  the  bro¬ 
thers,  had  been  kidnapped  five-and-twenty  years  before  from 
the  same  town. 

Kenichon  then  disguised  himself  as  a  soldier,  proceeded 
to  Antwerp,  where  he  called  himself  Michael  de  Triviere,  and 
thence  made  his  way  to  Breda,  provided  with  letters  from 
Berlaymont.  He  was,  however,  arrested  on  suspicion  not 
long  after  his  arrival  there,  and  upon  trial  the  whole  plot 
was  discovered.  Having  unsuccessfully  attempted  to  hang 
himself,  he  subsequently,  without  torture,  made  a  full  and 
minute  confession,  and  was  executed  on  the  3rd  June, 
1594.87 

Later  in  the  year,  one  Pierre  du  Four,  who  had  been  a 
soldier  both  in  the  States  and  the  French  service,  was  en~ 


87  Bor,  Reyd,  Meteren,  ubi  sup,  “  I 
Rave  been,  with  others  of  the  council 
of  state,  twice  or  thrice  at  the  exami¬ 
nation  of  the  prisoner.  He  declareth  his 
coming  to  have  been  about  an  attempt 
against  Breda  (which  is  taken  to  be 
but  a  made  and  coloured  thing),  and 
withal  to  see  if  he  could  kill  the  Count 
Maurice — that  Berlaymont  was  the 
mover  and  Ernestus  privy  to  all,  but 
as  yet  the  truth  of  the  practice  and  cir¬ 
cumstances  he  openetli  not  flatly,  which 
will  be  drawn  from  him  ere  he  be  left. 
Of  profession  he  is  a  priest  and  born 
in  Namur,  having  named  six  others 
employed  about  the  same  mischief, but 
the  fellow  is  subtle  and  ready  in  his 
words  to  colour  and  answer  anything, 
so  that  all  is  not  to  be  credited  that 
cometh  from  him.” — Gilpin  to  Burgh- 
ley,  2  April,  1594.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.) 

The  commissioner  alluded  to  the 
forthcoming  answer  of  the  States-Ge- 
neral  in  regard  to  the  proposed  nego¬ 


tiations  for  peace,  in  which  these  mur¬ 
derous  attempts  of  the  Spanish  king 
and  his  representatives  were  to  be 
hurled  in  his  face  with  terrible  em¬ 
phasis,  and  spoke  of  them  with  the  in¬ 
dignation  of  an  honest  Englishman  : — 
“  The  States-General,  not  doubting 
but  that  the  discovery  of  the  said  mur¬ 
der,  when  it  shall  be  made  known  and 
published  (whereby  it  may  appear  to 
the  world  what  a  most  barbarous  and 
abominable  course  the  King  of  Spain 
and  his  do  hold  by  practices  against 
the  persons  of  kings  and  princes),  will 
not  only  strengthen  and  confirm  the 
people  here  in  their  resolution  to  con¬ 
tinue  tlicir  defence  and  wars, but  make 
all  other  potentates  and  countries  dis¬ 
like  and  detest  such  heathenish  and 
wicked  attempts  and  proceedings  to 
the  perpetual  dishonour,  reproach,  and 
infamy  of  the  authors  and  dealers.” — 
Ibid. 


300 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXX. 


gaged  by  General  La  Motte  and  Counsellor  Assonleville  to 
attempt  the  assassination  of  Prince  Maurice.88  La  Motte  took 
the  man  to^the  palace;  and  pretended  at  least  to  introduce 
him  to  the  chamber  of  the  archduke,  who  was  said  to  be 
lying  ill  in  bed.  Du  Four  was  advised  to  enrol  himself  in 
the  body-guard  at  the  Hague,  and  to  seek  an  opportunity 
when  the  prince  went  hunting,  or  was  mounting  his  horse,  or 
was  coming  from  church,  or  at  some  such  unguarded  moment, 
to  take  a  shot  at  him.  “  Will  you  do  what  I  ask/'  demanded 
from  the  bed  the  voice  of  him  who  was  said  to  be  Ernest, 
“  will  you  kill  this  tyrant  ?”  “  I  will,”  replied  the  soldier. 

“  Then  my  son,”  was  the  parting  benediction  of  the  supposed 
archduke,  “you  will  go  straight  to  paradise.”89 

Afterwards  he  received  good  advice  from  Assonleville,  and 
was  assured  that  if  he  would  come  and  hear  a  mass  in  the 
royal  chapel  next  morning,  that  religious  ceremony  would 
make  him  invisible  when  he  should  make  his  attempt  on  the 
life  of  Maurice,  and  while  he  should  be  effecting  his  escape.90 
The  poor  wretch  accordingly  came  next  morning  to  chapel, 
where  this  miraculous  mass  was  duly  performed,  and  he  then 
received  a  certain  portion  of  his  promised  reward  in  ready 
money.  He  was  also  especially  charged,  in  case  he  should 
be  arrested,  not  to  make  a  confession — as  had  been  done  by 
those  previously  employed  in  such  work — as  all  complicity 
with  him .  on  part  of  his  enrployers  would  certainly  be 
denied.91 

The  miserable  dupe  was  arrested,  convicted,  executed ; 
17  Nov.  and  of  course  the  denial  was  duly  made  on  the 
1594-  part  of  the  archduke,  La  Motte,  and  Assonleville. 
It  was  also  announced,  on  behalf  of  Ernest,  that  some  one 
else,  fraudulently  impersonating  his  Highness,  had  lain  in  the 
bed  to  which  the  culprit  had  been  taken,  and  every  one  must 
hope  that  the  statement  was  a  true  one.92 

Enough  has  been  given  to  show  the  peculiar  school  of 

68  Meteren  xvi.  335.  Bor,  III.  882,  883.  Reyd,  ix.  247. 

89  Ibid.  “  Figliol  mio,  se  farete  quello  die  m’avete  promesso  d’amazzar  quel 
tyranno,  andarete  diritto  in  Paradiso.”  90  Bor,  ubi  sup.  91  Ibid.  92  Ibid. 


1594. 


ATTEMPTED  NEGOTIATION. 


301 


statesmanship  according  to  the  precepts  of  which  the  internal 
concerns  and  foreign  affairs  of  the  obedient  Netherlands  were 
now  administered.  Poison  and  pistols  in  the  hands  of  obscure 
priests  and  deserters  were  relied  on  to  bring  about  great 
political  triumphs,  while  the  mutinous  royal  armies,  entrenched 
and  defiant,  were  extorting  capitulations  from  their  own 
generals  and  their  own  sovereign  upon  his  own  soil. 

Such  a  record  as  this  seems  rather  like  the  exaggeration  of 
a  diseased  fancy,  seeking  to  pander  to  a  corrupt  public  taste 
which  feeds  greedily  upon  horrors  ;  hut,  unfortunately,  it  is 
derived  from  the  register  of  high  courts  of  justice,  from  diplo¬ 
matic  correspondence,  and  from  the  confessions,  without  tor¬ 
ture  or  hope  of  free  pardon,  of  criminals.  For  a  crowned 
king  and  his  high  functionaries  and  generals  to  devote  so 
much  of  their  time,  their  energies,  and  their  money  to  the 
murder  of  brother  and  sister  sovereigns,  and  other  illustrious 
personages,  was  not  to  make  after  ages  in  love  with  the 
monarchic  and  aristocratic  system,  at  least  as  thus  admin¬ 
istered.  Popular  governments  may  he  deficient  in  polish, 
hut  a  system  resting  for  its  chief  support  upon  bribery  and 
murder  cannot  he  considered  lovely  by  any  healthy  mind. 
And  this  is  one  of  the  lessons  to  be  derived  from  the  history 
of  Philip  II.  and  of  the  Holy  League. 

But  besides  mutiny  and  assassination  there  were  also  some 
feeble  attempts  at  negotiation  to  characterize  the  Ernestian 
epoch  at  Brussels.  The  subject  hardly  needs  more  than  a 
passing  allusion. 

Two  Flemish  juris-consults,  Otto  Hertius  and  Jerome 
Comans,  offered  their  services  to  the  archduke  in  the  peace¬ 
making  department.  Ernest  accepted  the  proposition, 
- — although  it  was  strongly  opposed  by  Fuentes,  who  relied 
upon  the  more  practical  agency  of  Hr.  Lopez,  Andrada, 
Renichon,  and  the  rest — and  the  peace-makers  accordingly 
made  their  appearance  at  the  Hague,  under  safe  conduct,  and 
provided  with  very  conciliatory  letters  from  his  Highness  to 
the  States-Greneral.93  In  all  ages  and  under  all  circumstances 

93  Bentivoglio,  P.  III.  lib.  i.  p.  390.  Bor,  III.  810-812. 


302 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXX. 


it  is  safe  to  enlarge,  with  whatever  eloquence  may  he  at  com¬ 
mand,  upon  the  blessings  of  peace  and  upon  the  horrors  of  war  ; 
for  the  appeal  is  not  difficult  to  make,  and  a  response  is 
certain  in  almost  every  human  breast.  But  it  is  another 
matter  to  descend  from  the  general  to  the  particular,  and  to 
demonstrate  how  the  desirable  may  be  attained  and  the 
horrible  averted.  The  letters  of  Ernest  were  full  of  benignity 
and  affection,  breathing  a  most  ardent  desire  that  the  miser¬ 
able  war,  now  'a  quarter  of  a  century  old,  should  be  then  and 
there  terminated.  But  not  one  atom  of  concession  was  offered, 
no  whisper  breathed  that  the  republic,  if  it  should  choose  to 
lay  down  its  victorious  arms,  and  renounce  its  dearly  gained 
independence,  should  share  any  different  fate  from  that  under 
which  it  saw  the  obedient  provinces  gasping  before  its  eyes. 
To  renounce  religious  and  political  liberty  and  self-govern¬ 
ment,  and  to  submit  unconditionally  to  the  authority  of 
Philip  II.  as  administered  by  Ernest  and  Fuentes,  was  hardly 
to  be  expected  as  the  result  of  the  three  years'  campaigns  of 
Maurice  of  Nassau. 

The  two  doctors  of  law  laid  the  affectionate  common-places 
of  the  archduke  before  the  States-General,  each  of  them 
making,  moreover,  a  long  and  flowery  oration  in  which  the 
same  protestations  of  good  will  and  hopes  of  future  good- 
fellowship  were  distended  to  formidable  dimensions  by  much 
windy  rhetoric.  The  accusations  which  had  been  made  against 
the  Government  of  Brussels  of  complicity  in  certain  projects 
of  assassination  were  repelled  with  virtuous  indignation.94 

The  answer  of  the  States-General  was  wrathful  and  de- 
^  cided.95  They  informed  the  commissioners  that 
they  had  taken  up  arms  for  a  good  cause  and  meant 
to  retain  them  in  their  hands.  They  expressed  their  thanks 
for  the  expressions  of  good  will  which  had  been  offered,  but 
avowed  their  right  to  complain  before  God  and  the  world  of 
those  who  under  pretext  of  peace  were  attempting  to  shed 
the  innocent  blood  of  Christians,  and  to  procure  the  ruin  and 
destruction  of  the  Netherlands.  To  this  end  the  state-council 

84  Bor,  III.  810-812.  95  See  the  document  in  full  in  Bor,  III.  813-815. 


1594.  REPLY  OF  THE  STATES-GENERAL.  303 

of  Spain  was  more  than  ever  devoted,  being  guilty  of  the 
most  cruel  and  infamous  proceedings  and  projects.  They 
threw  out  a  rapid  and  stinging  summary  of  their  wrongs  ; 
and  denounced  with  scorn  the  various  hollow  attempts  at 
negotiation  during  the  preceding  twenty-five  years.  Coming 
down  to  the  famous  years  1587  and  1588,  they  alluded  in 
vehement  terms  to  the  fraudulent  peace  propositions  which 
had  been  thrown  as  a  veil  over  the  Spanish  invasion  of 
England  and  the  Armada  ;  and  they  glanced  at  the  media¬ 
tion-projects  of  the  emperor  in  1591  at  the  desire  of  Spain, 
while  armies  were  moving  in  force  from  Germany,  Italy,  and 
the  Netherlands  to  crush  the  King  of  France,  in  order  that 
Philip  might  establish  his  tyranny  over  all  kings,  princes, 
provinces,  and  republics.  That  the  Spanish  Government  was 
secretly  dealing  with  the  emperor  and  other  German  poten¬ 
tates  for  the  extension  of  his  universal  empire  appeared  from 
intercepted  letters  of  the  king — copies  of  which  were  com¬ 
municated — from  which  it  was  sufficiently  plain  that  the 
purpose  of  his  Majesty  was  not  to  bestow  peace  and  tranquillity 
upon  the  Netherlands.  The  names  of  Fuentes,  Clemente, 
Ybarra,  were  sufficient  in  themselves  to  destroy  any  such 
illusion.  They  spoke  in  blunt  terms  of  the  attempt  of  Dr. 
Lopez  to  poison  Queen  Elizabeth,  at  the  instigation  of  Count 
Fuentes,  for  fifty  thousand  crowns  to  be  paid  by  the  King 
of  Spain  :  they  charged  upon  the  same  Fuentes  and  upon 
Ybarra  that  they  had  employed  the  same  Andrada  to  murder 
the  King  of  France  with  a  nosegay  of  roses  ;  and  they  alluded 
further  to  the  revelations  of  Michael  Renichon,  wjjLO  was  to 
murder  Maurice  of  Nassau  and  kidnap  Frederic  William, 
even  as  their  father  and  brother  had  been  already  murdered 
and  kidnapped.96 

For  such  reasons  the  archduke  might  understand  by  what 
persons  and  what  means  the  good  people  of  the  Netherlands 
were  deceived,  and  how  difficult  it  was  for  the  States  to  forget 
such  lessons,  or  to  imagine  anything  honest  in  the  present 
propositions. 


9<>  Bor,  III.  813-815. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXX. 


304 


The  States  declared  themselves,  on  the  contrary,  more 
called  upon  than  ever  before  to  be  upon  the  watch  against 
the  stealthy  proceedings  of  the  Spanish  council  of  state- 
bearing  in  mind  the  late  execrable  attempts  at  assassination, 
and  the  open  war  which  was  still  carried  on  against  the  King 
of  France. 

And  although  it  was  said  that  his  Highness  was  displeased 
with  such  murderous  and  hostile  proceedings,  still  it  was 
necessary  for  the  States  to  beware  of  the  nefarious  piojects  of 
the  King  of  Spain  and  his  council.97 

After  the  conversion  of  Henry  IV.  to  the  Roman  Church 
0?  Ma  had  been  duly  accomplished  that  monarch  had  sent 
159L7,  a  secret  envoy  to  Spain.  The  mission  of  this  agent 
_ He  Varenne  by  name — excited  intense  anxiety  and  sus¬ 
picion  in  England  and  Holland  and  among  the  Protestants  of 
France  and  Germany.  It  was  believed  that  Henry  had  not 
only  made  a  proposition  of  a  separate  peace  with  Philip,  but 
that  he  had  formally  but  mysteriously  demanded  the  hand  of 
the  Infanta  in  marriage.  Such  a  catastrophe  as  this  seemed 
to  the  heated  imaginations  of  the  great  body  of  Calvinists 
throughout  Europe,  who  had  so  faithfully  suppoited  the  King 
of  Navarre  up  to  the  moment  of  his  great  apostasy,  the  most 
cruel  and  deadly  treachery  of  all.  That  the  princess  with 
the  many  suitors  should  come  to  reign  over  France  after  all 

_ not  as  the  bride  of  her  own  father,  not  as  the  queen-consort 

of  Ernest  the  Habsburger  or  of  Guise  the  Lorrainer,  but  as 
the  lawful  wife  of  Henry  the  Huguenot — seemed  almost  too 
astounding  for  belief,  even  amid  the  chances  and  changes  of 
that  astonishing  epoch.  Yet  Huplessis  Mornay  avowed  that 
the  project  was  entertained,  and  that  he  had  it  from  the  very 
lips  of  the  secret  envoy  who  was  to  negotiate  the  marriage. 
u  La  Varenne  is  on  his  way  to  Spain/'  wrote  Huplessis  to  the 


97  Bor,  III.  813-815.  Tlio  archduke, 
as  might  he  supposed,  was  not  pleased 
with  the  reply  of  the  States,  and 
characterised  it  as  so  arrogant  and 
outrageous  that  he  would  not  have 
allowed  his  Majesty’s  ears  to  he  of¬ 


fended  by  it  had  not  the  States,  like 
insolent  people  as  they  were,  already 
caused  it  to  he  printed  and  published. 
Ernest  to  Philip,  4  Sept.  1594.  (Arch, 
de  Simancas  MS.) 


1594. 


MENDOZA’S  REPORT  TO  PHILIP. 


305 


Duke  of  Bouillon,  u  in  company  with  a  gentleman  of  Don 
Bernardino  de  Mendoza,  who  brought  the  first  overtures.  He 
is  to  bring  back  the  portrait  of  the  Infanta.  ’Tis  said  that  the 
marriage  is  to  be  on  condition  that  the  Queen  and  the  Nether¬ 
lands  are  comprised  in  the  peace,  but  you  know  that  this 
cannot  be  satisfactorily  arranged  for  those  two  parties.  All 
this  was  once  guess-work,  but  is  now  history/’ 98 

That  eminent  diplomatist  and  soldier  Mendoza  had  already 
on  his  return  from  France  given  the  King  of  Spain  to  under¬ 
stand  that  there  were  no  hopes  of  his  obtaining  the  French 
crown  either  for  himself  or  for  his  daughter,  that  all  the  money 
lavished  on  the  chiefs  of  the  League  was  thrown  away,  and  that 
all  their  promises  were  idle  wind.  Mendoza  in  consequence 
had  fallen  into  contempt  at  court,  but  Philip,  observing 
apparently  that  there  might  have  been  something  correct  in 
his  statements,  had  recently  recalled  him,  and,  notwith¬ 
standing  his  blindness  and  other  infirmities,  was  disposed  to 
make  use  of  him  in  secret  negotiations.  Mendoza  had 
accordingly  sent  a  confidential  agent  to  Henry  IY.  offering 
his  good  offices,  now  that  the  king  had  returned  to  the  bosom 
of  the  Church. 

This  individual,  whose  name  was  Nunez,  was  admitted  by 
De  Bethune  (afterwards  the  famous  Due  de  Sully)  to  the 
presence  of  the  king,  but  De  Bethune,  believing  it  probable 
that  the  Spaniard  had  been  sent  to  assassinate  Henry,  held 
both  the  hands  of  the  emissary  during  the  whole  interview, 
besides,  subjecting  him  to  a  strict  personal  visitation  before¬ 
hand.  Nunez  stated  that  he  was  authorized  to  propose  to 
his  Majesty  a  marriage  with  the  Infanta  Clara  Isabella,  and 
Henry,  much  to  the  discontent  of  De  Bethune,  listened  eagerly 
to  the  suggestion,  and  promised  to  send  a  secret  agent  to 
Spain  to  confer  on  the  subject  with  Mendoza. 

The  choice  he  made  of  La  Varenne,  whose  real  name  was 
Guillaume  Fouquet,  for  this  mission  was  still  more  offensive 


98  “  Je  le  sais  de  la  bouche  du  por- 
teur  qui  ne  le  m’osa  deguiser  pareeque 

je  monstrai  en  etre  adverti, . 

VOL.  III. — X 


e’etait  alors  devination,  maintenant 
liistoire.” — Mem.  et  Corresp.  iv.  5G3. 
18  Sept.  1593. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXX. 


306 


to  De  Bethune.  Fouquet  had  originally  been  a  cook  in  the 
service  of  Madame  Catherine,  and  was  famous  for  his  talent 
for  larding  poultry,  hut  he  had  subsequently  entered  the 
household  of  Henry,  where  he  had  been  employed  in  the  most 
degrading  service  which  one  man  can  render  to  another." 

On  his  appointment  to  this  office  of  secret  diplomacy  he 
assumed  all  the  airs  of  an  ambassador,  while  Henry  took 
great  pains  to  contradict  the  reports  which  were  spread  as  to 
the  true  nature  of  this  mission  to  Spain.100 

Duplessis  was,  in  truth,  not  very  far  wrong  in  his  conjec¬ 
tures,  hut,  as  might  he  supposed,  Henry  was  most  anxious  to 
conceal  these  secret  negotiations  with  his  Catholic  Majesty 
from  the  Huguenot  chiefs  whom  he  had  so  recently  deserted. 
“  This  is  all  done  without  the  knowledge  of  the  Duke  of 
Bouillon,”  said  Calvaert,  “  or  at  least  under  a*  very  close 
disguise,  as  he  himself  keenly  feels  and  confesses  to  me.”  101 
The  envoy  of  the  republic,  as  well  as  the  leaders  of  the  Pro¬ 
testant  party  in  France,  were  resolved  if  possible  to  break  off 
these  dark  and  dangerous  intrigues,  the  nature  of  which  they 
so  shrewdly  suspected,  and  to  substitute  for  them  an  open 
rupture  of  Henry  with  the  King  of  Spain,  and  a  formal  decla¬ 
ration  of  war  against  him.  None  of  the  diplomatists  or 
political  personages  engaged  in  these  great  affairs,  in  which 
the  whole  world  was  so  deeply  interested,  manifested  more 
sagacity  and  insight  on  this  occasion  than  did  the  Dutch 
statesmen.  We  have  seen  that  even  Sir  Edward  Stafford 


99  “  La  Varenne,”  said  Madame  Ca¬ 
therine  on  one  occasion,  “  tu  as  plus 
gagne  a  porter  les  poulets  de  mon 
frere,  qu’a  piquer  les  miens.”  Me- 
moires  de  Sully,  Liv.  vi.  p.  296,  note  (3. 
He  accumulated  a  large  fortune  in 
these  dignified  pursuits — having,  ac¬ 
cording  to  Win  wood,  landed  estates  to 
the  annual  amount  of  sixty  thousand 
francs  a-year — and  gave  large  dowries 
to  his  daughters,  whom  he  married 
into  noblest  families  ;  “  which  is  the 
more  remarkable,”  adds  Winwood, 
“  considering  the  services  wherein  he 
is  employed  about  the  king,  which  is 
to  be  the  Mezzano  for  his  loves  ;  the 
place  from  whence  he  came,  which  is 


out  of  the  kitchen  of  Madame  the 
king’s  sister.” — Memorials,  i.  380. 

100  Mem.  de  Sully,  ubi  sup. 

101  Deventer.  Gedenkstukken,  &c. 
ii.  37.  In  this  most  valuable  contribu¬ 
tion  to  the  history  of  the  Netherlands 
and  of  Europe,  the  learned  editor  has 
been  the  first  to  give — so  far  as  I  am 
aware — the  true  history  of  this  re¬ 
markable  negotiation.  The  accounts 
by  contemporary  historians  show  the 
writers  to  have  been  kept  as  much  in 
the  dark  as  the  English  envoy  was,  an 
extract  from  whose  private  letter  to 
Lord  Burghley  will  be  found  in  note 
2,  p.  216.  Compare  Bor,  III.  759-763. 


1594.  MISSION  OF  VARENNE  TO  SPAIN.  307 

was  deceived  up  to  a  very  late  moment,  as  to  the  rumoured 
intentions  of  Henry  to  enter  the  Catholic  Church.  Envoy 
Edmonds  was  now  equally  and  completely  in  the  dark  as  to 
the  mission  of  Yarenne,  and  informed  his  Government  that 
the  only  result  of  it  was  that  the  secret  agent  to  Spain  was 
favoured,  through  the  kindness  of  Mendoza,  with  a  distant 
view  of  Philip  II.  with  his  son  and  daughter  at  their  devotions 
in  the  chapel  of  the  Escorial.  This  was  the  tale  generally 
recounted  and  believed  after  the  agent's  return  from  Spain, 
so  that  Yarenne  was  somewhat  laughed  at  as  having  gone  to 
Spain  on  a  fool’s  errand,  and  as  having  got  nothing  from  Men¬ 
doza  but  a  disavowal  of  his  former  propositions.  But  the 
shrewd  Calvaert,  who  had  entertained  familiar  relations  with  La 
Yarenne,  received  from  that  personage  after  his  return  a  very 
different  account  of  his  excursion  to  the  Escorial  from  the  one 
generally  circulated.  u  Coming  from  Monceaux  to  Paris  in 
his  company,”  wrote  Calvaert  in  a  secret  despatch  to  the 
States,  “  I  had  the  whole  story  from  him.  The  chief  part  of 
his  negotiations  with  Don  Bernardino  de  Mendoza  was  that 
if  his  Majesty  (the  French  king)  would  abandon  the  Queen  of 
England  and  your  Highnesses  (the  States  of  the  Netherlands), 
there  were  no  conditions  that  would  be  refused  the  king, 
including  the  hand  of  the  Infanta,  together  with  a  good 
recompense  for  the  kingdom  of  Navarre.  La  Yarenne  main¬ 
tained  that  the  King  of  Spain  had  caused  these  negotiations 
to  be  entered  upon  at  this  time  with  him  in  the  certain  hope 
and  intention  of  a  definite  conclusion,  alleging  to  me  many 
pertinent  reasons,  and  among  others  that  he,  having  been 
lodged  at  Madrid,  through  the  adroitness  of  Don  Bernardino, 
among  all  the  agents  of  the  League,  and  hearing  all  their 
secrets  and  negotiations,  had  never  been  discovered,  but  had 
always  been  supposed  to  be  one  of  the  League  himself.  He 
said  also  that  he  was  well  assured  that  the  Infanta  in  her 
heart  had  an  affection  for  the  French  king,  and  notwith¬ 
standing  any  resolutions  that  might  be  taken  (to  which  I 
referred,  meaning  the  projects  for  bestowing  her  on  the  house 
of  Austria)  that  she  with  her  father’s  consent  or  in  case  of 


Chap.  XXX. 


2Qg  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 

his  death  would  not  fail  to  carry  out  this  marriage.  You  may 
from  all  this,  even  out  of  the  proposal  for  compensation  tor 
the  kingdom  of  Navarre  (of  which  his  Majesty  also  let  out 
something  to  me  inadvertently),  collect  the  reasons  why  such 
feeble  progress  is  made  in  so  great  an  occasion  as  now  presents 
itself  for  a  declaration  of  war  and  an  open  alliance  with  your 
Highnesses.  I  shall  not  fail  to  watch  these  events,  even  m 
case  of  the  progress  of  the  said  resolutions,  notwithstanding 
the  effects  of  which  it  is  my  opinion  that  this  secret  intrigue 
is  not  to  he  abandoned.  To  this  end,  besides  the  good 
intelligence  which  one  gets  by  means  of  good  friends,  a  con¬ 
tinual  and  agreeable  presentation  of  oneself  to  his  Majesty, 
in  order  to  see  and  hear  everything,  is  necessary/’ 102  . 

Certainly,  here  were  reasons  more  than  sufficient  why 
Henry  should  be  making  but  feeble  preparations  for  open  wai 
in  alliance  with  England  and  the  republic  against  Philip,  as 
such  a  step  was  hardly  compatible  with  the  abandonment  of 
England  and  the  republic  and  the  espousal  of  Philip  s 
daughter— projects  which  Henry’s  commissioner  had  just 
been  discussing  with  Philip’s  agent  at  Madrid  and  the 

Escorial. 

Truly  it  was  well  for  the  republican  envoy  to  watch  events 
as  closely  as  possible,  to  make  the  most  of  intelligence  fiom 
his  good  friends,  and  to  present  himself  as  frequently  and  as 
agreeably  as  possible  to  his  Majesty,  that  he  might  hear  and 
see  everything.  There  was  much  to  see  and  to  hear,  and 
it  needed  adroitness  and  courage,  not  to  slip  or  stumble  in 
such  dark  ways  where  the  very  ground  seemed  often  to  be 
sliding  from  beneath  the  feet. 

To  avoid  the  catastrophe  of  an  alliance  between  Henry, 
Philip,  and  the  Pope  against  Holland  and  England,  it  was  a 
pressing  necessity  for  Holland  and  England  to  force  Henry 
into  open  war  against  Philip.  To  this  end  the  Dutch  states¬ 
men  were  bending  all  their  energies.  Meantime  Elizabeth 
regarded  the  campaign  in  Artois  and  Hainault  with  little 

favour. 


102  Deventer,  libi  sup. 


1591. 


MISSION  OF  VARENNE  TO  SPAIN. 


309 


As  he  took  leave  on  departing  for  France,  La  Varenne  had 
requested  Mendoza  to  write  to  King  Henry,  hut  the  Spaniard 
excused  himself — although  professing  the  warmest  friendship 
for  his  Majesty — on  the  ground  of  the  impossibility  of  ad¬ 
dressing  him  correctly.  “  If  I  call  him  here  King  of  Navarre, 
I  might  as  well  put  my  head  on  the  block  at  once,”  he  ob¬ 
served  ;  “  if  I  call  him  King  of  France,  my  master  has  not 
yet  recognized  him  as  such ;  if  I  call  him  anything  else,  he 
will  himself  be  offended.”  103 

And  the  vision  of  Philip  in  black  on  his  knees,  with  his 
children  about  him,  and  a  rapier  at  his  side,  passed  with  the 
contemporary  world  as  the  only  phenomenon  of  this  famous 
secret  mission.104 


™  Bor,  III.  759-763. 

104  Ibid.  Envoy  Edmondes  gave  a 
detailed  account  of  the  matter,  so  far 
as  he  understood  it,  from  Dieppe  :  — 
“  Don  Bernardino,”  he  says,  “  asked  to 
hear  what  he  (La  Varenne)  had  in 
charge,  to  which  the  other  made  an¬ 
swer  to  have  nothing,  only  to  have 
brought  eyes  to  see  and  ears  to  hear 

what  he  would  propound . 

Whereupon  Bernardino  made  him  an¬ 
swer  that  he  was  to  avow  nothing 
that  his  said  servant  had  delivered, 
which  he  said  to  be  in  him  a  less 
shame  than  in  Mons.  de  Mayne  having 
disavowed  a  person  of  the  quality  of 
Mons.  de  V  i  lleroy .  La  V  arenne  there¬ 
fore,  seeing  he  could  draw  no  other 
payment  from  him,  prayed  him,  to  the 
end  his  journey  might  not  be  to  him 
altogether  fruitless,  to  procure  that  he 
might  have  a  sight  of  the  king  and  the 
beauties  of  the  Scuriall,  his  house, 
which  he  accordingly  performed,  caus¬ 
ing  him  to  be  secretly  brought  into  the 
chapel, where  he  saw  the  king  at  mass, 
of  purpose  attired  in  extraordinary  de¬ 
monstration  of  liveliness,  wearing  the 
sword  and  cape,  which  he  had  not  be¬ 
fore  done  in  two  years ;  with  also  the 
young  prince  and  the  Infanta  in  like 
colour,  was  brought  another  time  to 
see  him  walking  in  the  garden,  but 
'without  speaking  at  all  unto  him. 
Being  therein  so  satisfied,  and  there¬ 
with  dismissed, Don  Bernardino  prayed 
him  at  his  departure  to  excuse  him  to 
the  king  for  not  writing  unto  him, 


which  he  said  he  could  not  do  in 
qualifying  him  as  appertained  without 
disproving  the  justness  of  his  master’s 
quarrel,  and  thereby  incur  peril ;  and 
to  give  him  an  undue  title,  that  he  was 
too  much  his  servant,  and  only  there¬ 
fore  to  let  him  know  that  so  as  the 
pope  wrould  speak  in  the  king’s  favour, 
there  is  very  good  reason  to  make  the 
King  of  Spain  to  understand  to  a 
union  with  him,  and  that  is  all  the 
return  he  bringetli  of  his  negotiation  ; 
but  the  king,  to  cover  the  shame  there¬ 
of,  doth  pay  himself  with  great  con¬ 
tentment  of  the  good  service  which  by 
that  occasion  he  hath  otherwise  done 
liim,  in  discovering,  by  haunting  un¬ 
known  divers  French  there  of  the 
League,  a  dangerous  enterprise  upon 
Bordeaux,  which  having  on  his  return 
declared  to  Marshal  Matignon,  he  hath 
thereupon  apprehended  certain  of  the 
principal  of  the  town  conspirators 
therein,”  &c.  Edmondes  to  Burgliley, 
13  Nov.  1593.  (S.  P.  Office  MS.) 

Compare  Bor,  ubi  sup. 

La  Varenne  was  subsequently  sent 
to  England  to  give  a  report — more  or 
less  ingenuous — of  his  Spanish  mission 
to  the  queen.  She  at  first  refused  to 
receive  him  on  the  ground  that  he  had 
formerly  used  disrespectful  language 
concerning  herself,  but  she  subse¬ 
quently  relented.  He  reported  that 
he  had  found  the  king  remarkably 
jolly  (, gaillard )  and  healthy  for  his 
years,  and  had  also  seen  the  rest  of  the 
royal  family.  Don  Bernardino,  he 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXX. 


310 


But  Henry,  besides  this  demonstration  towards  Spain,  lost 
no  time  in  despatching  a  special  minister  to  the  republic  and 
to  England,  who  was  instructed  to  make  the  most  profuse, 
elaborate,  and  conciliatory  explanations  as  to  his  recent  con¬ 
version  and  as  to  his  future  intentions.105  Never  would  he 
make  peace,  he  said,  with  Spain  without  the  full  consent  of 
the  States  and  of  England  ;  the  dearest  object  of  his  heart  in 
making  his  peace  with  Rome  having  been  to  restore  peace  to 
his  own  distracted  realm,  to  bring  all  Christians  into  one 
brotherhood,  and  to  make  a  united  attack  upon  the  grand 
Turk— a  vision  which  the  cheerful  monarch  hardly  intended 
should  ever  go  beyond  the  ivory  gate  of  dreams,  but  which 
furnished  substance  enough  for  several  well-rounded  periods 

in  the  orations  of  De  Morlans. 

That  diplomatist,  after  making  the  strongest  representations 
to  Queen  Elizabeth  as  to  the  faithful  friendship  of  his  master, 
and  the  necessity  he  was  under  of  pecuniary  and  military 
assistance,  had  received  generous  promises  of  aid  both  in  men 
and  money — three  thousand  men  besides  the  troops  actually 
serving  in  Brittany— from  that  sagacious  sovereign,  notwith¬ 
standing  the  vehement  language  in  which  she  had  rebuked 
her  royal  brother’s  apostasy.106  He  now  came  for  the  same 
purpose  to  the  Hague,  where  he  made  very  eloquent  harangues 
to  the  States-General,  acknowledging  that  the  republic  had 
ever  been  the  most  upright,  perfect,  and  undisguised  friend 
to  his  master  and  to  France  in  their  darkest  days  and  deepest 
affliction  ;  that  she  had  loved  the  king  and  kingdom  for  them¬ 
selves,  not  merely  hanging  on  to  their  prosperity,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  doing  her  best  to  produce  that  prosperity  by  her 


said,  who  had  given  the  king  to 
understand,  now  that  he  was  Catholic, 
that  lie  could  find  means  to  reconcile 
him  with  the  king  his  master,  where¬ 
by  he  might  maintain  himself  peace¬ 
ably  in  his  kingdom,  had  nevertheless 
professed  ignorance  of  any  such  mat¬ 
ter  when  he  found  that  V  arenne  had 
no  commission  except  to  see  and  to 
hear.  So  the  agent  was  fain— accord¬ 
ing  to  his  public  statement — to  con¬ 
tent  himself  with  a  distant  view  of  the 


most  catholic  king  at  his  devotions. 
Noel  de  Caron  to  the  States-General, 
4  Dec.  1593.  (Hague  Archives.)  No 
one  but  Calvaert  seems  to  have  suc¬ 
ceeded  in  pumping  the  secret  envoy, 
but  by  Calvaert  the  States-General 
were  enlightened,  and  put  thoroughly 
on  their  guard  as  to  the  possible  de¬ 
signs  of  Henry. 

iob  De  Morlans  to  the  States-Gene¬ 
ral,  in  Bor,  III.  721-726.  26  Aug. 

1 1598.  106  Bor,  III.  719. 


1594.  HENRY’S  PROFESSIONS  TOWARDS  THE  STATES.  311 

contributions  in  soldiers,  ships,  and  subsidies.  “  The  king,” 
said  De  Morlans,  u  is  deeply  grieved  that  he  can  prove  his 
gratitude  only  in  words  for  so  many  benefits  conferred,  which 
are  absolutely  without  example,  but  he  has  commissioned  me 
to  declare  that  if  God  should  ever  give  him  the  occasion,  he 
will  prove  how  highly  he  places  your  friendship.” 

The  envoy  assured  the  States  that  all  fears  entertained  by 
those  of  the  reformed  religion  on  account  of  the  conversion  of 
his  Majesty  were  groundless.  Nothing  was  farther  from  the 
king's  thoughts  than  to  injure  those  noble  spirits  with  whom 
his  soul  had  lived  so  long,  and  whom  he  so  much  loved  and 
honoured.  No  man  knew  better  than  the  king  did  the  cha¬ 
racter  of  those  who  professed  the  Religion ,  their  virtue,  valour, 
resolution,  and  patience  in  adversity.  Their  numbers  had 
increased  in  war,  their  virtues  had  been  purified  by  affliction, 
they  had  never  changed  their  position,  whether  battles  had 
been  won  or  lost.  Should  ever  an  attempt  be  made  to  take 
up  arms  against  them  within  his  realms,  and  should  there  be 
but  five  hundred  of  them  against  ten  thousand,  the  king, 
remembering  their  faithful  and  ancient  services,  would  leave 
the  greater  number  in  order  to  die  at  the  head  of  his  old 
friends.  He  was  determined  that  they  should  participate  in 
all  the  honours  of  the  kingdom,  and  with  regard  to  a  peace 
with  Spain,  he  would  have  as  much  care  for  the  interests  of 
the  United  Provinces  as  for  his  own.  But  a  peace  was  impos¬ 
sible  with  that  monarch,  whose  object  was  to  maintain  his  own 
realms  in  peace  while  he  kept  France  in  perpetual  revolt 
against  the  king  whom  God  had  given  her.  The  King  of 
Spain  had  trembled  at  Henry's  cradle,  at  his  youth,  at  the 
bloom  of  his  manhood,  and  knew  that  he  had  inflicted  too 
much  injury  upon  him  ever  to  be  on  friendly  terms  with  him. 
The  envoy  was  instructed  to  say  that  his  master  never 
expected  to  be  in  amity  with  one  who  had  ruined  his  house, 
confiscated  his  property,  and  caused  so  much  misery  to  France  ; 
and  he  earnestly  hoped — without  presuming  to  dictate  that 
the  States-General  would  in  this  critical  emergency  manifest 
their  generosity.  If  the  king  were  not  assisted  now,  both 


312 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXX. 


king  and  kingdom  would  perish.  If  he  were  assisted,  the 
succour  would  hear  double  fruit.107 

The  sentiments  expressed  on  the  part  of  Henry  towards  his 
faithful  subjects  of  the  Religion,  the  heretic  Queen  of  England, 
and  the  stout  Dutch  Calvinists  who  had  so  long  stood  by  him, 
were  most  noble.  It  was  pity  that,  at  the  same  moment,  he 
was  proposing  to  espouse  the  Infanta,  and  to  publish  the 
Council  of  Trent. 

The  reply  of  the  States- General  to  these  propositions  of  the 
French  envoy  was  favourable,  and  it  was  agreed  that  a  force 
of  three  thousand  foot  and  five  hundred  horse  should  be  sent 
to  the  assistance  of  the  king.  Moreover,  the  state-paper 
drawn  up  on  this  occasion  was  conceived  with  so  much 
sagacity  and  expressed  with  so  much  eloquence,  as  particu¬ 
larly  to  charm  the  English  queen  when  it  was  communicated 
to  her  Majesty.  She  protested  very  loudly  and  vehemently 
to  Noel  de  Caron,  envoy  from  the  provinces  at  London,  that 
this  response  on  the  part  of  his  Government  at  De  Morlans 
was  one  of  the  wisest  documents  that  she  had  ever  seen. 
“In  all  their  actions,”  said  she,  “the  States-General  show 
their  sagacity,  and  indeed,  it  is  the  wisest  Government  ever 
known  among  republics.  I  would  show  you,”  she  added  to 
the  gentlemen  around  her,  “  the  whole  of  the  paper  if  it  were 
this  moment  at  hand.”  108 

After  some  delays,  it  was  agreed  between  the  French 
Government  and  that  of  the  United  Provinces,  that  the  king 
should  divide  his  army  into  three  parts,  and  renew  the 
military  operations  against  Spain  with  the  expiration  of  the 
truce  at  the  end  of  the  year  (1593). 

One  body,  composed  of  the  English  contingent,  together 
with  three  thousand  French  horse,  three  thousand  Swiss,  and 
four  thousand  French  harquebus-men,  were  to  be  under  his 
own  immediate  command,  and  were  to  act  against  the  enemy 
wherever  it  should  appear  to  his  Majesty  most  advantageous. 
A  second  army  was  to  expel  the  rebels  and  their  foreign  allies 
from  Normandy  and  reduce  Rouen  to  obedience.  A  third 

108  Bor,  III.  726. 


101  Address  of  Morlans,  ubi  svp. 


1594. 


CAMPAIGN  OF  COUNT  PHILIP. 


313 


was  to  make  a  campaign  in  the  provinces  of  Artois  and 
Hainault,  under  the  Duke  of  Bouillon  (more  commonly  called 
the  Yiscount  Turenne),  in  conjunction  with  the  forces  to  he 
supplied  by  the  republic.  u  Any  treaty  of  peace  on  our  part 
with  the  King  of  Spain,”  said  the  States-General,  u  is  our 
certain  ruin.  This  is  an  axiom.  That  monarch's  object  is  to 
incorporate  into  his  own  realms  not  only  all  the  states  and 
possessions  of  neighbouring  kings,  principalities,  and  powers^ 
hut  also  all  Christendom ,  aye ,  the  whole  world ,  were  it  possible. 
We  joyfully  concur  then  in  your  Majesty's  resolution  to  carry 
on  the  war  in  Artois  and  Hainault,  and  agree  to  your  sug¬ 
gestion  of  diversions  on  our  part  by  sieges  and  succour  by 
contingents.”109 

Balagny,  meantime,  who  had  so  long  led  an  independent 
existence  at  Camhray,  now  agreed  to  recognise  Henry's 
authority,  in  consideration  of  sixty-seven  thousand  crowns 
yearly  pension  and  the  dignity  of  Marshal  of  France.110 

Towards  the  end  of  the  year  1594,  Buzanval,  the  regular 
French  envoy  at  the  Hague,  began  to  insist  more  warmly 
than  seemed  becoming  that  the  campaign  in  Artois  and 
Hainault — so  often  the  base  of  military  operations  on  the  part 
of  Spain  against  France — should  begin.  Further  achieve¬ 
ments  on  the  part  of  Maurice  after  the  fall  of  Groningen  were 
therefore  renounced  for  that  year,  and  his  troops  went  into 
garrison  and  winter-quarters.111  The  States-General,  who  had 
also  been  sending  supplies,  troops,  and  ships  to  Brittany  to 
assist  the  king,  now,  after  soundly  rebuking  Buzanval  for  his 
intemperate  language,  entrusted  their  contingent  for  the  pro¬ 
posed  frontier  campaign  to  Count  Philip  Nassau,  who  accord¬ 
ingly  took  the  field  toward  the  end  of  the  year  at  the  head  of 
twenty-eight  companies  of  foot  and  five  squadrons  of  cavalry. 
He  made  his  junction  with  Turenne-Bouillon,  but  the  duke, 
although  provided  with  a  tremendous  proclamation,  was  but 
indifferently  supplied  with  troops.  The  German  levies,  long- 
expected,  were  slow  in  moving,  and  on  the  whole  it  seemed 

109  Bor  III.  766.  110  Buzanval  to  tlie  States-General,  8  Dec.  1593,  apud 

Bor,  III.  765,’ 766.  111  Bor,  846-859. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


•  Chap.  XXX. 


314 


that  the  operations  might  have  been  continued  by  Maurice 
with  more  effect,  according  to  his  original  plan,  than  in  this 
rather  desultory  fashion.112  The  late  winter  campaign  on  the 
border  was  feeble  and  a  failure. 

The  bonds  of  alliance,  however,  were  becoming  very  close 
between  Henry  and  the  republic.  Despite  the  change  in 
religion  on  the  part  of  the  king,  and  the  pangs  which  it  had 
occasioned  in  the  hearts  of  leading  Netherlander,  there  was 
still  the  traditional  attraction  between  France  and  the  States, 
which  had  been  so  remarkably  manifested  during  the  adminis¬ 
tration  of  William  the  Silent.  The  republic  was  more  restive 
than  ever  under  the  imperious  and  exacting  friendship  of 
Elizabeth,  and,  feeling  more  and  more  its  own  strength,  was 
making  itself  more  and  more  liable  to  the  charge  of  ingrati¬ 
tude,  so  constantly  hurled  in  its  face  by  the  queen.  And 
Henry,  now  that  he  felt  himself  really  king  of  France,  was 
not  slow  to  manifest  a  similar  ingratitude  or  an  equal  love  of 
independence.  Both  monarch  and  republic,  chafing  under 
the  protection  of  Elizabeth,  were  drawn  into  so  close  a  union 
as  to  excite  her  anger  and  jealousy — sentiments  which  in 
succeeding  years  were  to  become  yet  more  apparent.  And 
now,  while  Henry  still  retained  the  chivalrous  and  flowery 
phraseology,  so  sweet  to  her  ears,  in  his  personal  communi¬ 
cations  to  the  queen,  his  ministers  were  in  the  habit  of  using 
much  plainer  language.  “  Mr.  de  Sancy  said  to  me/'  wrote 
the  Netherland  minister  in  France,  Calvaert,  “that  his 
Majesty  and  your  Highnesses  (the  States-General)  must  with¬ 
out  long  delay  conclude  an  alliance  offensive  and  defensive. 
In  regard  to  England,  which  perhaps  might  look  askance  at 
this  matter,  he  told  me  it  would  be  invited  also  by  his  Majesty 
into  the  same  alliance  ;  but  if,  according  to  custom,  it  shilly¬ 
shallied,  and  without  coming  to  deeds  or  to  succour  should 
put  him  off  with  words,  he  should  in  that  case  proceed  with 
our  alliance  without  England,  not  doubting  that  many  other 
potentates  in  Italy  and  Germany  would  join  in  it  likewise. 
He  said  too,  that  he,  the  day  before  the  departure  of  the 

112  Bor,  846-859. 


1594. 


ASPECT  OF  AFFAIRS. 


315 


English  ambassador,  had  said  these  words  to  him  in  the 
presence  of  his  Majesty ;  namely,  that  England  had  enter¬ 
tained  his  Majesty  sixteen  months  long  with  far-fetched 
and  often-repeated  questions  and  discontents,  that  one  had 
submitted  to  this  sort  of  thing  so  long  as  his  Majesty  was 
only  king  of  Mantes,  Dieppe,  and  Louviers,  hut  that  his 
Majesty  being  now  king  of  Paris  would  he  no  longer  a 
servant  of  those  who  should  advise  him  to  suffer  it  any  longer 
or  accept  it  as  good  payment  ;  that  England  must  treat  his 
Majesty  according  to  his  quality,  and  with  deeds,  not  words. 
He  added  that  the  ambassador  had  very  anxiously  made 
answer  to  these  words,  and  had  promised  that  when  he  got 
hack  to  England  he  would  so  arrange  that  his  Majesty  should 
he  fully  satisfied,  insisting  to  the  last  on  the  alliance  then 
proposed/'  13 

In  Germany,  meanwhile,  there  was  much  protocolling,  and 
more  hard  drinking,  at  the  Diet  of  Ratisbon.  The  Protestant 
princes  did  little  for  their  cause  against  the  new  designs  of  Spain 
and  the  moribund  League,  while  the  Catholics  did  less  to  assist 
Philip.  In  truth,  the  holy  Roman  Empire,  threatened  with  a 
Turkish  invasion,  had  neither  power  nor  inclination  to  help 
the  new  universal  empire  of  the  west  into  existence.  So  the 
princes  and  grandees  of  Germany,  while  Amurath  was  knocking 
at  the  imperial  gates,  busied  themselves  with  banquet  ting 
and  other  diplomatic  work,  but  sent  few  reiters  either  to  the 
east  or  west.114 

Philip's  envoys  were  indignant  at  the  apathy  displayed 
towards  the  great  Catholic  cause,  and  felt  humbled  at  the 
imbecility  exhibited  by  Spain  in  its  efforts  against  the  Nether¬ 
lands  and  France.  San  Clemente,  who  was  attending  the 


113  M.  L.  van  Deventer — Gedenk- 
stnkken  van  Johan  van  Oldenbarne- 
velt  en  zign  Tijd,  ii.  20,  21.  (22 
April,  1594.)  De  Sancy  expressed 
himself  in  still  stronger  language  a 
few  weeks  later :  “  Should  England 
delay  or  interpose  difficulties,”  said,  he, 
“  then  the  king  will  at  once  go  into 
company  with  the  States  -  General ; 
aye,  he  will  bring  this  alliance  for¬ 


ward  principally  in  consideration  and 
respect  for  the  States,  whose  authority 
he  wishes  to  establish,  .  .  .  declaring 
with  many  words  that  your  Highnesses 
are  exactly  the  power  in  the  whole 
world  to  which  the  king  is  under  the 
greatest  obligation,  and  in  which  lie 
places  his  chief  confidence.”  Ibid, 
pp.  24,  25  (11  May,  1594.) 

114  Bor,  III.  852-854 


316 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXX. 


Diet  at  Ratisbon,  was  shocked  at  the  scenes  he  witnessed.  “  In 
less  than  three  months/'  said  that  temperate  Spaniard,  “  they 
have  drunk  more  than  five  million  florins'  worth  of  wine,  at  a 
time  when  the  Turk  has  invaded  the  frontiers  of  Germany  ; 
and  among  those  who  have  done  the  most  of  this  consumption 
of  wine,  there  is  not  one  who  is  going  to  give  any  assistance 
on  the  frontier.  In  consequence  of  these  disorders  my  purse 
is  drained  so  low,  that  unless  the  king  helps  me  I  am  ruined. 
You  must  tell  our  master  that  the  reputation  of  his  grandeur 
and  strength  has  never  been  so  low  as  it  is  now  in  Germany. 
The  events  in  France  and  those  which  followed  in  the  Nether¬ 
lands  have  thrown  such  impediments  in  the  negotiations  here, 
that  not  only  our  enemies  make  sport  of  Marquis  Havre  and 
myself,  but  even  our  friends — who  are  very  few — dare  not  go 
to  public  feasts,  weddings,  and  dinners,  because  they  are 
obliged  to  apologize  for  us."  115 

Truly  the  world-empire  was  beginning  to  crumble.  u  The 
emperor  has  been  desiring  twenty  times,"  continued  the  envoy, 
u  to  get  back  to  Prague  from  the  Diet,  but  the  people  hold 
him  fast  like  a  steer.  As  I  think  over  all  that  passes,  I 
lose  all  judgment,  for  I  have  no  money,  nor  influence,  nor 
reputation.  Meantime,  I  see  this  rump  of  an  empire  keeping 
itself  with  difficulty  upon  its  legs.  'Tis  full  of  wrangling  and 
discord  about  religion,  and  yet  there  is  the  Turk  with  two 
hundred  thousand  men  besieging  a  place  forty  miles  from 
Vienna,  which  is  the  last  outpost.  God  grant  it  may 
last."116 

Such  was  the  aspect  of  the  Christian  world  at  the  close  of 
the  year  1594. 

115  Intercepted  letters  of  San  Clemente  to  Idiaquez,  80  Aug.  1594.  Apuci 
i3or,  ubi  sup.  116  Ibid. 


1595. 


DECLARATION  OF  WAR  AGAINST  SPAIN. 


317 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

Formal  declaration  of  war  against  Spain — Marriage  festivities  —  Death  of 
Archduke  Ernest  —  His  year  of  government  —  Fuentes  declared  governor- 
general  —  Disaffection  of  the  Duke  of  Arschot  and  Count  Arenberg  — 
Death  of  the  Duke  of  Arscliot  —  Fuentes  besieges  Le  Catelet  —  The  fortress 
of  Ham,  sold  to  the  Spanish  by  De  Gomeron,  besieged  and  taken  by  the 
Duke  of  Bouillon  —  Execution  of  De  Gomeron  —  Death  of  Colonel  Verdugo 
—Siege  of  Dourlens  by  Fuentes  —  Death  of  La  Motte  —  Death  of  Charles 
Mansfeld  —  Total  defeat  of  the  French  —  Murder  of  Admiral  De  Villars  — 
Dourlens  captured,  and  the  garrison  and  citizens  put  to  the  sword  — 
Military  operations  in  eastern  Netherlands  and  on  the  Rhine  —  Maurice 
lays  siege  to  Groento  —  Mondragon  hastening  to  its  relief,  Prince  Maurice 
raises  the  siege  —  Skirmish  between  Maurice  and  Mondragon  —  Death  of 
Philip  of  Nassau  —  Death  of  Mondragon  —  Bombardment  and  surrender  of 
Weerd  Castle  —  Maurice  retires  into  winter  quarters  —  Campaign  of  Henry 

IV. _ He  besieges  Dijon  —  Surrender  of  Dijon  — Absolution  granted  to 

Henry  by  the  pope— Career  of  Balagny  at  Cambray  —  Progress  of  the 
siege  —  Capitulation  of  the  town  —  Suicide  of  the  Princess  of  Cambray,  wife 
of  Balagny. 

The  year  1595  opened  with,  a  formal  declaration  ot  war  by 
the  King  of  France  against  the  King  of  Spain.1  It  17  jan. 
would  he  difficult  to  say  for  exactly  how  many  1595* 
years  the  war  now  declared  had  already  been  waged,  hut  it 
was  a  considerable  advantage  to  the  United  Netherlands 
that  the  manifesto  had  been  at  last  regularly  issued.  And 
the  manifesto  was  certainly  not  deficient  in  bitterness.  Not 
often  in  Christian  history  has  a  monarch  been  solemnly  and 
officially  accused  by  a  brother  sovereign  of  suborning  assassins 
against  his  life.  Bribery,  stratagem,  and  murder,  were, 
however,  so  entirely  the  commonplace  machinery  of  Philip’s 
administration  as  to  make  an  allusion  to  the  late  attempt 
of  Chastel  appear  quite  natural  in  Henry’s  declaration  of 
war.  The  king  further  stigmatized  in  energetic  language 
the  long  succession  of  intrigues  by  which  the  monarch  of 

1  Bor,  IV.  xxx.  2,  seqq.  De  Thou,  xii.  lib.  iii.  pp.  342,  seqq. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXI. 


318 


Spain,  as  chief  of  the  Holy  League,  had  been  making  war 
upon  him  by  means  of  his  own  subjects,  for  the  last  half 
dozen  years.  Certainly  there  was  hardly  need  of  an  elaborate 
statement  of  grievances.  The  deeds  of  Philip  required  no 
herald,  unless  Henry  was  prepared  to  abdicate  his  hardly- 
earned  title  to  the  throne  of  France. 

Nevertheless  the  politic  Gascon  subsequently  regretted  the 
fierce  style  in  which  he  had  fulminated  his  challenge.  He 
was  accustomed  to  observe  that  no  state  paper  required  so 
much  careful  pondering  as  a  declaration  of  war,2  and  that  it 
was  scarcely  possible  to  draw  up  such  a  document  without 
committing  many  errors  in  the  phraseology.  The  man  who 
never  knew  fear,  despondency,  nor  resentment,  was  already 
instinctively  acting  on  the  principle  that  a  king  should  deal 
with  his  enemy  as  if  sure  to  become  his  friend,  and  with  his 
friends  as  if  they  might  easily  change  to  foes.3 

The  answer  to  the  declaration  was  delayed  for  two  months. 
When  the  reply  came  it  of  course  breathed  nothing  but  the 
most  benignant  sentiments  in  regard  to  France,  while  it 
7  March,  expressed  regret  that  it  was  necessary  to  carry  fire 

1595.  and  sword  through  that  country  in  order  to  avert 
the  unutterable  woe  which  the  crimes  of  the  heretic  Prince 
of  Bearne  were  bringing  upon  all  mankind.4 

It  was  a  solace  for  Philip  to  call  the  legitimate  king  by  the 
title  borne  by  him  when  heir-presumptive,  and  to  persist  in 
denying  to  him  that  absolution  which,  as  the  whole  world  was 
aware,  the  Yicar  of  Christ  was  at  that  very  moment  in  the 
most  solemn  manner  about  to  bestow  upon  him. 

More  devoted  to  the  welfare  of  France  than  were  the 
French  themselves,  he  was  determined  that  a  foreign  prince 
— himself,  his  daughter,  or  one  of  his  nephews — should 
supplant  the  descendant  of  St.  Louis  on  the  French  throne. 
More  catholic  than  the  pope  he  could  not  permit  the  heretic, 
whom  his  Holiness  was  just  washing  whiter  than  snow,  to 
intrude  himself  into  the  society  of  Christian  sovereigns. 

2  Bor.  De  Thou,  vbi  sup.  3  Sully  I.  lih.  vii.  p.  412. 

4  Bor.  De  Thou,  ubi  sup. 


1595.  MARRIAGE  FESTIVITIES.  319 

The  winter  movements  by  Bouillon  in  Luxembourg,  sus¬ 
tained  by  Philip  Nassau  campaigning  with  a  meagre  force  on 
the  French  frontier,  were  not  very  brilliant.  The  Netherlancl 
regiments  quartered  at  Yssoire,  La  Ferte,  and  in  the  neigh¬ 
bourhood  accomplished  very  little,  and  their  numbers  were 
sadly  thinned  by  dysentery.  A  sudden  and  successful  stroke, 
too,  by  which  that  daring  soldier  Heraugiere,  who  had  been 
the  chief  captor  of  Breda,  obtained  possession  of  the  town  and 
castle  of  Huy,  produced  no  permanent  advantage.  This 
place,  belonging  to  the  Bishop  of  Liege,  with  its  stone  bridge 
over  the  Meuse,  was  an  advantageous  position  from  which  to 
aid  the  operations  of  Bouillon  in  Luxembourg.  Heraugiere 
was,  however,  not  sufficiently  reinforced,  and  Huy  was  a 
month  later  re-captured  by  La  Motte.J  The  campaigning 
was  languid  during  that  winter  in  the  United  Nethei lands, 
but  the  merry-making  was  energetic.  The  nuptials  of  Ho- 
henlo  with  Mary,  eldest  daughter  of  William  the  Silent  and 
own  sister  of  the  captive  Philip  William ;  of  the  Duke  of 
Bouillon  with  Elizabeth,  one  of  the  daughters  of  the  same 
illustrious  prince  by  his  third  wife,  Charlotte  of  Bourbon  , 
and  of  Count  Everard  Solms,  the  famous  general  of  the 
Zeeland  troops,  with  Sabina,  daughter  of  the  unfortunate 
Lamoral  Egmont,  were  celebrated  with  much  pomp  during 
the  months  of.  February  and  March.6  The  States  of  Holland 
and  of  Zeeland  made  magnificent  presents  of  diamonds  to 
the  brides  ;  the  Countess  Hohenlo  receiving  besides  a  yearly 
income  of  three  thousand  florins  for  the  lives  of  herself  and 
her  husband.7 

In  the  midst  of  these  merry  marriage  bells  at  the  Hague  a 
funeral  knell  was  sounding  in  Brussels.  On  the  20  Feb. 
20th  February,  the  governor-general  of  the  obedient 
Netherlands,  Archduke  Ernest,  breathed  his  last.  His  career 
had  not  been  so  illustrious  as  the  promises  of  the  Spanish 
king  and  the  allegories  of  schoolmaster  Houwaerts  had  led 
■nim  to  expect.  He  had  not  espoused  the  Infanta  nor  been 
crowned  King  of  France.  He  had  not  blasted  the  rebellious 

e  Bor,  IV.  8,  10.  6  Ibid.  18.  7  Ibid. 


g20  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXI. 

Netherlands  with  Cyclopean  thunderbolts,  nor  unbound  the 
Belgic  Andromeda  from  the  rock  of  doom.  His  brief  year 
of  government  had  really  been  as  dismal  as,  according  to 
the  announcement  of  his  sycophants,  it  should  have  been 
amazing.  He  had  accomplished  nothing,  and  all  that  was 
left  him  was  to  die  at  the  age  of  forty-two,  over  head  and 
ears  in  debt,  a  disappointed,  melancholy  man.  He  was 
very  indolent,  enormously  fat,  very  chaste,  very  expensive, 
fond  of  fine  liveries  and  fine  clothes,  so  solemn  and  stately 
as  never  to  he  known  to  laugh,  hut  utterly  without  capacity 
either  as  a  statesman  or  a  soldier.s  He  would  have  shone 
as  a  portly  abbot  ruling  over  peaceful  friars,  hut  he  was  not 
horn  to  ride  a  revolutionary  whirlwind,  nor  to  evoke  order 
out  of  chaos.  Past  and  Present  were  contending  with  each 
other  in  fierce  elemental  strife  within  his  domain.  A  world 
was  in  dying  agony,  another  world  was  coming,  full-armed, 
into  existence  within  the  hand-breadth  of  time  and  of  space 
where  he  played  his  little  part,  hut  he  dreamed  not  of  it. 
He  passed  away  like  a  shadow,  and  was  soon  forgotten. 

An  effort  was  made,  during  the  last  illness  of  Ernest,  to 
procure  from  him  the  appointment  of  the  elector  of  Cologne 
as  temporary  successor  to  the  government,  hut  Count  Euentes 
was  on  the  spot  and  was  a  man  of  action.  He  produced  a 
power  in  the  French  language  from  Philip,  with  a  blank  for 
the  name.  This  had  been  intended  for  the  case  of  Peter 
Ernest  Mansfeld’s  possible  death  during  his  provisional 
administration,  and  Fuentes  now  claimed  the  right  of  insert¬ 
ing  his  own  name.8 9 

The  dying  Ernest  consented,  and  upon  his  death  Fuentes 
was  declared  governor-general  until  the  king’s  further  plea¬ 
sure  should  be  known. 

Pedro  de  Guzman,  Count  of  Fuentes,  a  Spaniard  of  the 
hard  and  antique  type,  was  now  in  his  sixty-fourth  year. 
The  pupil  and  near  relative  of  the  Duke  of  Alva,  he  was 

8  Bor,  IV.  12.  Coloma,  viii.  162.  .  . 

9  Diego  de  Ybarra  to  Philip,  19  Feb.  1595.  Est.  de  Ybarra  to  the  Secretaries, 

same  date.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 


1595. 


FUENTES  DECLARED  GOVERNOR-GENERAL. 


321 


already  as  odious  to  tlie  Netherlanders  as  miglit  liave  been 
inferred  from  such  education  and  such  kin.  A  dark,  grizzled, 

.  baldish  man,  with  high  steep  forehead,  long,  haggard,  leathern 
visage,  sweeping  beard,  and  large,  stern,  commanding,  me¬ 
nacing  eyes,  with  his  Brussels  ruff  of  point  lace  and  his 
Milan  coat  of  proof,  he  was  in  personal  appearance  not  unlike 
the  terrible  duke  whom  men  never  named  without  a  shudder, 
although  a  quarter  of  a  century  had  passed  since  he  had 
ceased  to  curse  the  Netherlands  with  his  presence.  Elizabeth 
of  England  was  accustomed  to  sneer  at  Fuentes  because  he 
had  retreated  before  Essex  in  that  daring  commander's 
famous  foray  into  Portugal.10  The  queen  called  the  Spanish 
general  a  timid  old  woman.  If  her  gibe  were  true,  it  was 
fortunate  for  her,  for  Henry  of  France,  and  for  the  republic, 
that  there  were  not  many  more  such  old  women  to  come 
from  Spain ‘to  take  the  place  of  the  veteran  chieftains  who 
were  destined  to  disappear  so  rapidly  during  this  year  in 
Flanders.  He  was  a  soldier  of  fortune,  loved  fighting,  not 
only  for  the  fighting's  sake,  but  for  the  prize-money  which  was 
to  be  accumulated  by  campaigning,  and  he  was  wont  to  say 
that  he  meant  to  enter  Paradise  sword  in  hand.11 

Meantime  his  appointment  excited  the  wrath  of  the  pro¬ 
vincial  magnates.  The  Duke  of  Arsckot  was  beside  himself 
with  frenzy,  and  swore  that  he  would  never  serve  under 
Fuentes  nor  sit  at  his  council-board.  The  d'uke's  brother, 
Marquis  Havre,  and  his  son-in-law,.  Count  Arenberg,  shared 
in  the  hatred,  although  they  tried  to  mitigate  the  vehemence 
of  its  expression.  But  Arschot  swore  that  no  man  had  the 
right  to  take  precedence  of  him  in  the  council  of  state,  and 
that  the  appointment  of  this  or  any  Spaniard  was  a  violation 
of  the  charters  of  the  provinces  and  of  the  promises  of  his 
Majesty.12  As  if  it  were  for  the  nobles  of  the  obedient  pro¬ 
vinces  to  prate  of  charters  and  of  oaths  !  Their  brethren 
under  the  banner  of  the  republic  had  been  teaching  Philip 
for  a  whole  generation  how  they  could  deal  with  the  privi- 

10  Vol  II  of  this  work,  p.  556.  11  Fruin.  Tien  Jaaren,  &c.,  192,  note. 

I2  Est*  de  Ybarra  to  Philip,  6  March,  1595.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 

VOL.  hi. — Y 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXI. 


leges  of  freemen  and  with  the  perjury  of  tyrants.  It  was 
late  in  the  day  for  the  obedient  Netherlander  to  remember 
their  rights.  Havre  and  Arenberg,  dissembling  their  own  • 
wrath,  were  abused  and  insulted  by  the  duke  when  they 
tried  to  pacify  him.  They  proposed  a  compromise,  according 
to  which  Arscliot  should  be  allowed  to  preside  in  the  council 
of  state  while  Fuentes  should  content  himself  with  the 
absolute  control  of  the  army.  This  would  be  putting  a  bit  of 
fat  in  the  duke’s  mouth,  they  said.13  Fuentes  would  hear 
of  no  such  arrangement.  After  much  talk  and  daily  attempts 
to  pacify  this  great  Netherlander,  his  Relatives  at  last  per¬ 
suaded  him  to  go  home  to  his  country  place.  He  even 
promised  Arenberg  and  his  wife  that  he  would  go  to  Italy, 
in  pursuance  of  a  vow  made  to  our  lady  of  Loretto.  Aren¬ 
berg  privately  intimated  to  Stephen  Ybarra  that  there  was  a 
certain  oil,  very  apt  to  be  efficacious  in  similar  cases  of 
irritation,  which  might  be  applied  with  prospect  of  success. 
If  his  father-in-law  could  only  receive  some  ten  thousand 
florins  which  he  claimed  as  due  to  him  from  Government, 
this  would  do  more  to  quiet  him  than  a  regiment  of  soldiers 
could.  He  also  suggested  that  Fuentes  should  call  upon  the 
duke,  while  Secretary  Ybarra  should  excuse  himself  by 
sickness  for  not  having  already  paid  his  respects.  This  was 
done.  Fuentes  called.  The  duke  returned  the  call,  and  the 
two  conversed  amicably  about  the  death  of  the  archduke,  but 
entered  into  no  political  discussion. 

Arscliot  then  invited  the  whole  council  of  state,  except 
John  Baptist  Tassis,  to  a  great  dinner.  He  had  prepared  a 
paper  to  read  to  them  in  which  he  represented  the  great 
dangers  likely  to  ensue  from  such  an  appointment  as  this  of 
Fuentes,  but  declared  that  he  washed  his  hands  of  the  conse¬ 
quences,  and  that  he  had  determined  to  leave  a  country 
where  he  was  of  so  little  account.  He  would  then  close  his 
eyes  and  ears  to  everything  that  might  occur,  and  thus 
escape  the  infamy  of  remaining  in  a  country  where  so 

13  Ybarra  to  Pliilip,  6  March,  1595.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.)  “  Una  pella 
de  sebo  en  la  boca  para  acquietarle.” 


1595. 


OPENING  OF  THE  CAMPAIGN. 


323 


little  account  was  made  of  him.  He  was  urged  to  refrain  ■ 
from  reading  this  paper  and  to  invite  Tassis.  After  a  time 
he  consented  to  suppress  the  document,  hut  he  manfully 
refused  to  hid  the  objectionable  diplomatist  to  his  banquet.14 

The  dinner  took  place  and  passed  olf  pleasantly  enough. 
Arschot  did  not  read  his  manifesto,  but,  as  he  warmed  with 
wine,  he  talked  a  great  deal  of  nonsense  which,  according  to 
Stephen  Ybarra,  much  resembled  it,  .and  he  vowed  that 
thenceforth  he  would  be  blind  and  dumb  to  all  that  might 
occur.15  A  few  days  later,  he  paid  a  visit  to  the  new  governor- 
general,  and  took  a  peaceful  farewell  of  him.  u  Your  Majesty 
knows  very  well  what  he  is,”  wrote  Fuentes  i  u  he  is  nothing 
but  talk.”16  Before  leaving  the  country  he  sent  a  bitter 
complaint  to  Ybarra,  to  the  effect  that  the  king  had  entiiely 
forgotten  him,  and  imploring  that  financier's  influence  to 
procure  for  him  some  gratuity  from  his  Majesty.  He  was 
in  such  necessity,  he  said,  that  it  was  no  longer  possible  for 

him  to  maintain  his  household.17 

And  with  this  petition  the  grandee  of  the  obedient  pro¬ 
vinces  shook  the  dust  from  his  shoes,  and  left  his  natal  soil 
for  ever.  He  died  on  the  11th  December  of  the  same  year 

in  Venice. 

His  son  the  Prince  of  Chimay,  his  brother,  and  son-in- 
law,  and  the  other  obedient  nobles,  soon  accommodated  them¬ 
selves  to  the  new  administration,  much  as  they  had  been 
inclined  to  bluster  at  first  about  their  privileges.  The 
governor  soon  reported  that  matters  were  proceeding  very 
smoothly.18  There  was  a  general  return  to  the  former 
docility  now  that  such  a  disciplinarian  as  Fuentes  held  the 

reins. 

The  opening  scenes  of  the  campaign  between  the  Spanish 
governor  and  France  were,  as  usual,  in  Picardy.  The  Mar¬ 
quis  of  Varambon  made  a  demonstration  in  the  neighbour¬ 
hood  of  Dourlens — a  fortified  ^  town  on  the  river  Authie, 


14  Ybarra  to  Philip,  6  March,  1595. 
(Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 

15  Ibid. 

16  Fuentes  to  Philip,  28  March,  1595. 


(Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.)  “  Es  el  que  V. 
Magd.  sabe,  content  andose  con  liablar.” 

17  Letters  of  Ybarra,  ubi  sup. 

18  Ybarra  to  Philip,  16  March,  1595. 


324 


Chap.  XXXI. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 

/ 

lying  in  an  open  plain,  very  deep  in  that  province — while 
Fuentes  took  the  field  with  eight  thousand  men,  and  laid 
siege  to  Le  Catelet.  He  had  his  eye,  however,  upon  Ham. 
That  important  stronghold  was  in  the  hands  of  a  certain 
nobleman  called  De  Gomeron,  who  had  been  an  energetic 
Leaguer,  and  was  now  disposed,  for  a  handsome  consideration, 
to  sell  himself  to  the  King  of  Spain.  In  the  auction  of 
governors  and  generals  then  going  on  in  every  part  of  France 
it  had  been  generally  found  that  Henry’s  money  was  more  to 
be  depended  upon  in  the  long  run,  although  Philip’s  bids  were 
often  very  high,  and,  for  a  considerable  period,  the  payments 
regular.  Gomeron’s  upset  price  for  himself  was  twenty-five 
thousand  crowns  in  cash,  and  a  pension  of  eight  thousand  a 
year.  Upon  these  terms  he  agreed  to  receive  a  Spanish 
garrison  into  the  town,  and  to  cause  the  French  in  the 
citadel  to  be  sworn  into  the  service  of  the  Spanish  king. 
Fuentes  agreed  to  the  bargain  and  paid  the  adroit  trades¬ 
man,  who  knew  so  well  how  to  turn  a  penny  for  himself, 
a  large  portion  of  the  twenty-five  thousand  crowns  upon  the 
nail. 

De  Gomeron  was  to  proceed  to  Brussels  to  receive  the 
residue.  His  brother-in-law,  M.  d’ Orville,  commanded  in  the 
citadel,  and  so  soon  as  the  Spanish  troops  had  taken  posses¬ 
sion  of  the  town  its  governor  claimed  full  payment  of  his 
services. 

But  difficulties  awaited  him  in  Brussels.  He  was  informed 
that  a  French  garrison  could  not  be  depended  upon  for 
securing  the  fortress,  but  that  town  and  citadel  must  both 
be  placed  in  Spanish  hands.  De  Gomeron  loudly  protesting 
that  this  was  not  according  to  contract,  was  calmly  assured, 
by  command  of  Fuentes,  that  unless  the  citadel  wrere  at 
once  evacuated  and  surrendered,  he  would  not  receive  the 
balance  of  his  twenty-five  thousand  crowns,  and  that  he  should 
instantly  lose  his  head.  H^re  was  more  than  De  Gomeron 
had  bargained  for ;  but  this  particular  branch  of  commerce 
in  revolutionary  times,  although  lucrative,  has  always  its 
risks.  De  Gomeron,  thus  driven  to  the  wall,  sent  a  letter  by 


1595.  TREACHERY  AND  EXECUTION  OF  DE  GOMERON.  325 

a  Spanish  messenger  to  liis  brother-in-law,  ordering  him  to 
surrender  the  fortress.  D’ Orville — who  meantime  had  been 
making  his  little  arrangements  with  the  other  party — pro¬ 
tested  that  the  note  had  been  written  under  duress,  and 
refused  to  comply  with  its  directions. 

Time  was  pressing,  for  the  Duke  of  Bouillon  and  the  Count 
of  St.  Pol  lay  with  a  considerable  force  in  the  neighbour¬ 
hood,  obviously  menacing  Ham. 

Fuentes  accordingly  sent  that  distinguished  soldier  and 
historian,  Don  Carlos  Coloma,  with  a  detachment  of  soldiers 
to  Brussels,  with  orders  to  bring  Gomeron  into  camp.  He 
was  found  seated  at  supper  with  his  two  young  brothers,  aged 
respectively  sixteen  and  eighteen  years,  and  was  just  putting 
a  cherry  into  his  mouth  as  Coloma  entered  the  room.  He 
remained  absorbed  in  thought,  trifling  with  the  cherry  without 
eating  it,  which  Don  Carlos  set  down  as  a  proof  of  guilt. 
The  three  brothers  were  at  once  put  in  a  coach,  together 
with  their  sister,  a  nun  of  the  age  of  twenty,  and  conveyed 
to  the  head-quarters  of  Fuentes,  who  lay  before  Le  Catelet, 
but  six  leagues  from  Ham. 

Meantime  D’Orville  had  completed  his  negotiations  with 
Bouillon,  and  had  agreed  to  surrender  the  fortress  so  soon  as 
the  Spanish  troops  should  be  driven  from  the  town.  The 
duke  knowing  that  there  was  no  time  to  lose,  came  with 
three  thousand  men  before  the  place.  His  summons  to 
surrender  was  answered  by  a  volley  of  cannon-shot  from 
the  town  defences.  An  assault  was  made  and  repulsed, 
D’Humieres,  a  most  gallant  officer  and  a  favourite  of  King 
Henry,  being  killed,  besides  at  least  two  hundred  soldiers. 
The  next  attack  was  successful,  the  town  was  carried,  and 
the  Spanish  garrison  put  to  the  sword. 

D’Orville  then,  before  giving  up  the  citadel,  demanded 
three  hostages  for  the  lives  of  his  three  brothers-in-law. 

The  hostages  availed  him  little.  Fuentes ‘had  already  sent 
word  to  Gomeron’s  mother,  that  if  the  bargain  were  not 
fulfilled  he  would  send  her  the  heads  of  her  three  sons  on 
three  separate  dishes.  The  distracted  woman  made  her  way 


326 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXI. 


to  D’Orville,  and  fell  at  liis  feet  with  tears  and  entreaties. 

It  was  too  late,  and  D’Orville,  unable  to  hear  her  lamentations, 
suddenly  rushed  from  the  castle,  and  nearly  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  Spaniards  as  he  fled  from  the  scene.  Two  of 
the  four  cuirassiers,  who  alone  of  the  whole  garrison  accom¬ 
panied  him,  were  taken  prisoners.  The  governor  escaped 
to  unknown  regions.  Madame  de  Gomeron  then  appeared 
before  Fuentes,  and  tried  in  vain  to  soften  him.  De  Gomeron 
was  at  once  beheaded  in  the  sight  of  the  whole  camp.  The 
two  younger  sons  were  retained  in  prison,  hut  ultimately 
set  at  liberty.19  The  town  and  citadel  were  thus  permanently 
acquired  by  their  lawful  king,  who  was  said,  to  he  more 
afflicted  at  the  death  of  D’Humieres  than  rejoiced  at  the 

capture  of  Ham.  .  _ 

Meantime  Colonel  Yerdugo,  royal  governor  of  Friesland, 

whose  occupation  in  those  provinces,  now  so  nearly  recovered 
by  the  republic,  was  gone,  had  led  a  force  of  six  thousand 
foot  and  twelve  hundred  horse  across  the  French  border,  and 
was 'besieging  La  Ferte  on  the  Cher.  The  sie£e  was  relieved 
by  Bouillon  on  the  26tli  May,  and  the  Spanish  veteran  was 
then  ordered  to  take  command  in  Burgundy.  But 
1595.  '  ’  his  days  were  numbered.  He  had  been  sick  of 
dysentery  at  Luxembourg  during  the  summer,  but  after 
apparent  recovery  died  suddenly  on  the  2nd  September,  and 
of  course  was  supposed  to  have  been  poisoned.-0  He  was 
identified  with  the  whole  history  of  the  Netherland  wars. 
Bora  at  Talavera  de  la  Eeyna,  of  noble  parentage,  as  lie 
asserted— although  his  mother  was  said  to  have  sold  dogs’ 
meat,  and  he  himself  when  a  youth  was  a  private  soldier— 
he  rose  by  steady  conduct  and  hard  fighting  to  considerable 
eminence  in  his  profession.  He  was  governor  of  Harlem 
after  the  famous  siege,  and  exerted  himself  with  some  success 
to  mitigate  the  ferocity  of  the  Spaniards  towards  the  Nether- 
landers  at  that  dpoch.  He  was  marshal-general  of  the  camp 
under  Don  John  of  Austria,  and  distinguished  himself  at  the 


19  Bor,  IV.  18,  19,  27. 


Coloma,  173. 


Meteren,  355,  356.  De  Thou,  xih  382  seqq. 
2o  Duyck,  662.  Compare  Bor,  IV.  29. 


1595. 


SIEGE  OF  CATELET. 


327 


battle  of  Gemblours.  He  succeeded  Count  Renneberg  as 
governor  of  Friesland  and  Groningen,  and  bore  a  manful 
part  in  most  of  tlie  rough  business  that  had  been  going  on 
for  a  generation  of  mankind  among  those  blood-stained  wolds 
and  morasses.  He  was  often  victorious,  and  quite  as  often 
soundly  defeated  ;  but  he  enjoyed  campaigning,  and  was  a 
glutton  of  work.  He  cared  little  for  parade  and  ceiemony, 
but  was  fond  of  recalling  with  pleasure  the  days  when  he 
was  a  soldier  at  four  crowns  a  month,  with  an  undivided 
fourth  of  one  cloak,  which  he  and  three  companions  wore 
by  turns  on  holidays.  Although  accused  of  having  at¬ 
tempted  to  procure  the  assassination  of  William  Lewis 
Nassau,  he  was  not  considered  ill-natured,  and  he  pos¬ 
sessed  much  admiration  for  Prince  Maurice. .  An  iron-clad 
man,  who  had  scarcely  taken  harness  from  his  back  all  his 
life,  he  was  a  type  of  the  Spanish  commanders  who  had 
implanted  international  hatred  deeply  in  the  Netherland  soul, 
and  who,  now  that  this  result  and  no  other  had  been  accom¬ 
plished,  were  rapidly  passing  away.  He  had  been  baptised 
Franco,  and  his  family  appellation  of  Yerdugo  meant  exe¬ 
cutioner.  Punning  on  these  names  he  was  wont  to  say,  that 
he  was  frank  for  all  good  people,  but  a  hangman  foi  heretics  , 
and  he  acted  up  to  his  gibe.21 

Foiled  at  Ham,  Fuentes  had  returned  to  the  siege  of 
Catelet,  and  had  soon  reduced  the  place.  He  then  turned 
his  attention  again  to  Hourlens,  and  invested  that  city. 
During  the  preliminary  operations,  another  veteran  com¬ 
mander  in  these  wars,  Yalentin  Pardieu  de  la  Motte, 
recently  created  Count  of  Everbecque  by  Philip,,  who  had 
been  for  a  long  time  general-in-cliief  of  the  artillery,  and 
was  one  of  the  most  famous  and  experienced  officers  in  the 
Spanish  service,  went  out  one  fine  moonlight  night  to  recon¬ 
noitre  the  enemy,  and  to  superintend  the  erection  of  bat¬ 
teries.  As  he  was  usually  rather  careless  of  his  personal 
safety,  and  rarely  known  to  put  on  his  armour  when  going 
for  such  purposes  into  the  trenches,  it  was  remarked  with 


21  Coloma,  1G8V0. 


328  the  united  Netherlands.  Chap.  xxxi. 

some  surprise,  on  this  occasion,  that  he  ordered  his  page  to 
bring  his  accoutrements,  and  that  he  armed  himself  cap-a-pie 
before  leaving  his  quarters.  Nevertheless,  before  he  had 
reached  the  redoubt,  a  bullet  from  the  town  struck  him 
between  the  fold  of  his  morion  and  the  edge  of  his  buckler 
and  he  fell  dead  without  uttering  a  sound.22 

Here  again  was  a  great  loss  to  the  king's  service.  La 
Motte,  of  a  noble  family  in  Burgundy,  had  been  educated  in 
the  old  fierce  traditions  of  the  Spanish  system  of  warfare 
in  the  Netherlands,  and  had  been  one  of  the  very  hardest 
instruments  that  the  despot  could  use  for  his  bloody  work. 
He  had  commanded  a  company  of  horse  at  the  famous  battle 
of  St.  Quintin,  and  since  that  opening  event  in  Philip's 
reign  he  had  been  unceasingly  engaged  in  the  Flemish  wars. 
Alva  made  him  a  colonel  of  a  Walloon  regiment ;  the  grand 
commander  Bequesens  appointed  him  governor  of  Grave¬ 
lines.  On  the  whole  he  had  been  tolerably  faithful  to  his 
colours  ;  having  changed  sides  but  twice.  After  the  pacifi¬ 
cation  of  Ghent  he  swore  allegiance  to  the  States-General, 
and  assisted  in  the  bombardment  of  the  citadel  of  that  place. 
Soon  afterwards  he  went  over  to  Don  John  of  Austria,  and 
surrendered  to  him  the  town  and  fortress  of  Gravelines, 
of  which  he  then  continued  governor  in  the  name  of  the 
king.  He  was  fortunate  in  the  accumulation  of  office  and 
of  money  ;  rather  unlucky  in  his  campaigning.  He  was 
often  wounded  in  action,  and  usually  defeated  when  com¬ 
manding  in  chief.  He  lost  an  arm  at  the  siege  of  Sluys,  and 
had  n6w  lost  his  life  almost  by  an  accident.  Although 
twice  married  he  left  no  children  to  inherit  his  great  estates, 
while  the  civil  and  military  offices  left  vacant  by  his  death 
were  sufficient  to  satisfy  the  claims  of  five  aspiring  indi¬ 
viduals.  The  Count  of  Varax  succeeded  him  as  general  of 
artillery  ;  but  it  was  difficult  to  find  a  man  to  replace  La 
Motte,  possessing  exactly  the  qualities  which  had  made  that 
warrior  so  valuable  to  his  king.  The  type  was  rapidly  disap¬ 
pearing,  and  most  fortunately  for  humanity,  if  half  the  stories 

22  Bor,  XII.  39.  Meteren,  356.  Coloma,  176. 


1595. 


CHARACTER  OP  LA  MOTTE. 


329 


told  of  liim  by  grave  chroniclers,  accustomed  to  discriminate 
between  history  and  gossip,  are  to  be  believed.  He  had  com¬ 
mitted  more  than  one  cool  homicide.  Although  not  rejoicing 
in  the  same  patronymic  as  his  Spanish  colleague  of  Friesland, 
he  too  was  ready  on  occasion  to  perform  hangman’s  work. 
When  sergeant-major  in  Flanders,' he  had  himself  volunteered 
— so  ran  the  chronicle — to  do  execution  on  a  poor  wretch 
found  guilty  of  professing  the  faith  of  Calvin  ;  and,  with  his 
own  hands,  had  prepared  a  fire  of  straw,  tied  his  victim  to 
the  stake,  and  burned  him  to  cinders.23  Another  Netherlander 
for  the  same  crime  of  heresy  had  been  condemned  to  be 
torn  to  death  by  horses.  *  No  one  could  be  found  to  carry  out 
the  sentence.  The  soldiers  under  La  Motte’s  command  broke 
into  mutiny  rather  than  permit  themselves  to  be  used  for 
such  foul  purposes  ;  but  the  ardent  young  sergeant-major 
came  forward,  tied  the  culprit  by  the  arms  and  legs  to  two 
horses,  and  himself  whipped  them  to  their  work  till  it  was 
duly  accomplished.24  Was  it  strange  that  in  Philip’s  reign 
such  energy  should  be  rewarded  by  wealth,  rank,  and  honour  ? 

•  Was  not  such  a  labourer  in  the  vineyard  worthy  of  his 
hire  P 

Still  another  eminent  chieftain  in  the  king’s  service 
disappeared  at  this  time — one  who,  although  unscrupulous 
and  mischievous  enough  in  his  day,  was  however  not  stained 
by  any  suspicion  of  crimes  like  these.  Count  Charles  Mans- 
feld,  tired  of  governing  his  decrepit  parent  Peter  Ernest, 
who,  since  the  appointment  of  Fuentes,  had  lost  all  further 
chance  of  governing  the  Netherlands,  had  now  left  Philip’s 
service  and  gone  to  the  Turkish  wars.  For  Amurath  III., 
who  had  died  in  the  early  days  of  the  year,  had  been  suc¬ 
ceeded  by  a  sultan  as  warlike  as  himself.  Mahomet  III., 
having  strangled  his  nineteen  brothers  on  his  accession,  hand¬ 
somely  buried  them  in  cypress  coffins  by  the  side  of  their 
father,  and  having  subsequently  sacked  and  drowned  ten 
infant  princes  posthumously  born  to  Amurath,25  was  at  leisure 

23  Meteren,  ubi  sup.  24  Ibid. 

25  De  Tliou,  XII.  lib.  cxiv.  pp.  500,  seqq.  Compare  Herrera,  iii.  476,  477. 


330 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap  XXXI. 


to  carry  the  war  through  Transylvania  and  Hungary,  up 
to  the  gates  of  Vienna,  with  renewed  energy.  The  Turk, 
who  could  enforce  the  strenuous  rules  of  despotism  by  which 
all  secundogenitures  and  collateral  claimants  in  the  Ottoman 
family  were  thus  provided  for,  was  a  foe  to  be  dealt  with 
seriously.  The  power  of  the  Moslems  at  that  day  was  a  full 
match  for  the  holy  Eoman  Empire.  The  days  were  far  dis¬ 
tant  when  the  grim  Turk’s  head  was  to  become  a  mockery 
and  a  show ;  and  when  a  pagan  empire,  born  of  carnage 
and  barbarism,  was  to  be  kept  alive  in  Europe  when  it  was 
ready  to  die?  by  the  collective  efforts  of  Christian  princes. 
Charles  Mansfeld  had  been  received  with  great  enthusiasm 
at  the  court  of  Rudolph,  where  he  was  created  a  prince  of 
the  Empire,  and  appointed  to  the  chief  command  of  the 
Imperial  armies  under  the  Archduke  Matthias.  But  his  war¬ 
fare  was  over.  At  the  siege  of  Gran  he  was  stricken  with 
sickness  and  removed  to  Comorn,  where  he  lingered  some 
weeks.  There,  on  the  24th  August,  as  he  lay  half-dozing  on 
his  couch,  he  was  told  that  the  siege  was  at  last  successful ; 
upon  which  he  called  for  a  goblet  of  wine,  drained  it  eagerly, 
and  then  lay  resting  his  head  on  his  hand,  like  one  absorbed 
in  thought.  When  they  came  to  arouse  him  from  his  reverie 
they  found  that  he  was  dead.25  His  father  still  remained 
superfluous  in  the  Netherlands,  hating  and  hated  by  Fuentes  ; 
but  no  longer  able  to  give  that  governor  so  much  annoyance 
as  during  his  son's  life-time  the  two  had  been  able  to  create 
for  Alexander  Farnese.  The  octogenarian  was  past  work 
and  past  mischief  now  ;  but  there  was  one  older  soldier  than- 
he  still  left  upon  the  stage,  the  grandest  veteran  in  Philip’s 
service,  and  now  the  last  survivor,  except  the  decrepit  Peter 
Ernest,  of  the  grim  commanders  of  Alva’s  school.  Chris¬ 
topher  Mondragon — that  miracle  of  human  endurance,  who 
had  been  an  old  man  when  the  great  duke  arrived  in  the 
Netherlands — was  still  governor  of  Antwerp  citadel,  and  men 
were  to  speak  of  him  yet  once  more  before  he  passed  from 
the  stage. 

26  Bor,  IV.  30.  Meteren,  349v0.  De  Thou,  xii.  523. 


1595. 


SIEGE  OF  DO  HELENS. 


331 


I  return  from  this  digression  to  the  siege  of  Dourlens. 
The  death  of  La  Motte  made  no  difference  in  the  plans  of 
Fuentes.  He  was  determined  to  reduce  the  place  prepara- 
tively  to  more  important  operations.  Bouillon  was  disposed 
to  relieve  it,  and  to  that  end  had  assembled  a  force  of  eight 
thousand  men  within  the  city  of  Amiens.  By  midsummer 
the  Spaniards  had  advanced  with  their  mines  and  galleries 
close  to  the  walls  of  the  city.  Meantime  Admiral  Villars, 
who  had  gained  so  much  renown  by  defending  Rouen  against 
Henry  IV.,  and  who  had  subsequently  made  such  an  excel¬ 
lent  bargain  with  that  monarch  before  entering  his  service,27 
arrived  at  Amiens.  On  the  24th  July  an  expedition  24  July, 
was  sent  from  that  city  towards  Dourlens.  Bouillon 
and  St.  Pol  commanded  in  person  a  force  of  six  hundred 
picked  cavalry.  Villars  and  Sanseval  each  led  half  as  many, 
and  there  was  a  supporting  body  of  twelve  hundred  mus¬ 
keteers.  This  little  army  convoyed  a  train  of  wagons,  con¬ 
taining  ammunition  and  other  supplies  for  the  beleaguered 
town.  But  Fuentes,  having  sufficiently  strengthened  his 
works,  sallied  forth  with  two  thousand  infantry,  and  a  flying 
squadron  of  Spanish  horse,  to  intercept  them.  It  was  the 
eve  of  St.  James,  the  patron  saint  of  Spain,  at  the  sound  of 
whose  name  as  a  war-cry  so  many  battle-fields  had  been  won 
in  the  Netherlands,  so  many  cities  sacked,  so  many  wholesale 
massacres  perpetrated.  Fuentes  rode  in  the  midst  of  his 
troops  with  the  royal  standard  of  Spain  floating  above  him. 
On  the  other  hand  Villars,  glittering  in  magnificent  armour 
and  mounted  on  a  superbly  caparisoned  charger,28  came  on, 
with  his  three  hundred  troopers,  as  if  about  to  ride  a  course 
in  a  tournament.  The  battle  which  ensued  was  one  of  the 
most  bloody  for  the  numbers  engaged,  and  the  victory  one  of 


27  He  liad  been  receiving  six  thou¬ 
sand  per  month  from  the  king  of  Spain, 
but  on  reconciling  himself  with  Henry 
after  the  surrender  of  Paris, he  received 
a  sum  of  three  hundred  thousand  ducats 
secured  by  estates  in  Normandy,  and 
a  yearly  pension  of  thirty  thousand 
ducats,  together  with  the  office  of  Ad¬ 


miral  of  France.  For  these  considera¬ 
tions  he  had  surrendered  Rouen,  Havre 
de  Gran,  and  the  castle  of  Pont  de 
P  Arche.  —  Herrera,  Hist.  gen.  del 
Mundo,  iii.  423. 

28  “  Muy  vistoso  y  galan  y  en  gallardo 
cavallo.”  Coloma,  i80. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXI. 


332 


the  most  decisive  recorded  in  this  war.  Villars  charged  pre¬ 
maturely,  furiously,  foolishly.  He  seemed  jealous  of  Bouillon, 
and  disposed  to  show  the  sovereign  to  whom  he  had  so 
recently  given  his  allegiance  that  an  ancient  Leaguer  and 
Papist  was  a  better  soldier  for  his  purpose  than  the  most 
grizzled  Huguenot  in  his  army.  On  the  other  hand  the 
friends  of  Villars  accused  the  duke  of  faint-heartedness,  or  at 
least  of  an  excessive  desire  to  save  himself  and  his  own  com¬ 
mand.  The  first  impetuous  onset  of  the  admiral  was  suc¬ 
cessful,  and  he  drove  half-a-dozen  companies  of  Spaniards 
before  him.  But  he  had  ventured  too  far  from  his  supports. 
Bouillon  had  only  intended  a  feint,  instead  of  a  desperate 
charge  ;  the  Spaniards  were  rallied,  and  the  day  was  saved  by 
that  cool  and  ready  soldier,  Carlos  Coloma;  In  less  than  an 
hour  the  French  were  utterly  defeated  and  cut  to  pieces. 
Bouillon  escaped  to  Amiens  with  five  hundred  men  \  this  was 
all  that  was  left  of  the  expedition.  The  horse  of  Villars 
was  shot  under  him  and  the  admiral's  leg  was  broken  as 
he  fell.  He  was  then  taken  prisoner  by  two  lieutenants  of 
Carlos  Coloma  ;  hut  while  these  warriors  were  enjoying,  by 
anticipation,  the  enormous  ransom  they  should  derive  from 
so  illustrious  a  captive,  two  other  lieutenants  in  the  service  of 
Marshal  de  Bosnes  came  up  and  claimed  their  share  in  the 
prize.  While  the  four  were  wrangling,  the  admiral  called 
.out  to  them  in  excellent  Spanish  not  to  dispute,  for  he  had 
money  enough  to  satisfy  them  all.  Meantime  the  Spanish 
commissary  -  general  of  cavalry,  Contreras,  came  up,  re¬ 
buked  this  unseemly  dispute  before  the  enemy  had  been  fairly 
routed,  and,  in  order  to  arrange  the  quarrel  impartially^ 
ordered  his  page  to  despatch  De  Villars  on  the  spot.  The 
page,  without  a  word,  placed  his  arquebus  to  the  admiral's 
forehead  and  shot  him  dead. 

So  perished  a  bold  and  brilliant  soldier,  and  a  most  un¬ 
scrupulous  politician.  Whether  the  cause  of  his  murder  was 
mere  envy  on  the  part  of  the  commissary  at  having  lost  a 
splendid  opportunity  for  prize-money,  or  hatred  to  an  ancient 
Leaguer  thus  turned  renegade,  it  is  fruitless  now  to  enquire. 


1595. 


ASSASSINATION  OF  DE  VILLARS. 


333 


Villars  would  have  paid  two  hundred  thousand  crowns  for  his 
ransom,  so  that  the  assassination  was  had  as  a  mercantile 
speculation  ;  hut  it  was  pretended  by  the  friends  of  Contreras 
that  rescue  was  at  hand.  It  is  certain,  however,  that  nothing 
was  attempted  by  the  French  to  redeem  their  total  overthrow. 
Count  Belin  was  wounded  and  fell  into  the  hands  of  Coloma. 
Sanseval  was  killed  ;  and  a  long  list  of  some  of  the  most 
brilliant  nobles  in  France  was  published  by  the  Spaniards  as 
having  perished  on  that  bloody  field.  This  did  not  prevent 
a  large  number  of  these  victims,  however,  from  enjoying 
excellent  health  for  many  long  years  afterwards,  although 
their  deaths  have  been  duly  recorded  in  chronicle  from  that 
day  to  our  own  times.29 

But  Villars  and  Sanseval  were  certainly  slain,  and  Fuentes 
sent  their  bodies,  with  a  courteous  letter,  to  the  Duke  of 
He  vers,  at  Amiens,  who  honoured  them  with  a  stately 
funeral.30 

There  was  much  censure  cast  on  both  Bouillon  and 
Villars  respectively  by  the  antagonists  of  each  chieftain  ;  and 
the  contest  as  to  the  cause  of  the  defeat  was  almost  as  ani¬ 
mated  as  the  skirmish  itself.  Bouillon  was  censured  for 
grudging  a  victory  to  the  Catholics,  and  thus  leaving  the 
admiral  to  his  fate.  Yet  it  is  certain  that  the  Huguenot 
duke  himself  commanded  a  squadron  composed  almost  en¬ 
tirely  of  papists.  Villars,  on  the  other  hand,  was  censured  for 
rashness,  obstinacy,  and  greediness  for  distinction  ;  yet  it  is  pro- 


29  Bor,  IV.  28-30.  Meteren,  356, 
segq.  Coloma,  180,  seqq.  Bentivoglio, 
411  412,  413.  Be  Thou,  xii.  403, 
seqq. 

Count  Lewis  Nassau  wrote  to  his 
brother  John  that  besides  the  admiral 
(Villars),  not  more  than  three  or  at 
most  four  nobles  of  distinction  pe¬ 
rished.  He  also  ascribes  the  defeat 
entirely  to  the  foolhardiness  of  the 
French,  who,  according  to  his  state¬ 
ment,  charged  up  hill  and  through  a 
narrow  road,  with  a  force  of  one  thou¬ 
sand  foot  and  three  hundred  cavalry, 
against  theenemy’s  whole  army, drawn 
up  in  battle  array,  and  consisting  of 


two  thousand  horse  and  ten  thousand 
infantry,  well  provided  with  artillery. 
Certainly  the  result  of  such  an  en¬ 
counter  could  hardly  be  doubtful,  but 
Count  Lewis  was  not  in  the  battle,  nor 
in  France  at  the  time,  and  the  news 
received  by  him  was  probably  inac¬ 
curate. 

I  have  preferred  to  rely  mainly  on 
Carlos  Coloma,  who  fought  in  the  ac¬ 
tion,  upon  De  Thou,  and  upon  the 
Dutch  chroniclers,  Bor,  Meteren,  and 
others. 

See  Groen  v.  Prinsterer.  (Archives 
II.  Serie,  i.  342.) 

30  Ibid. 


234  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXI. 

bable  that  Fuentes  might  have  been  defeated  had  the  charges 
of  Bouillon  been  as  determined  and  frequent  as  were  those  of 
his  colleague.  Savigny  de  Rosnes,  too,  the  ancient  Leaguer, 
who  commanded  under  Fuentes,  was  accused  of  not  having 
sufficiently  followed  up  the  victory,  because  unwilling  that 
his  Spanish  friends  should  entirely  trample  upon  his  own 
countrymen.  Yet  there  is  no  doubt  whatever  that  De  Rosnes 
was  as  bitter  an  enemy  to  his  own  country  as  the  most 
ferocious  Spaniard  of  them  all.  It  has  rarely  been  found  m 
civil  war  that  the  man  who  draws  his  sword  against  his 
fatherland,  under  the  banner  of  the  foreigner,  is  actuated  by 
any  lingering  tenderness  for  the  nation  he  betrays  ;  and  the 
renegade  Frenchman  was  in  truth  the  animating  spirit  of 
Fuentes  during  the  whole  of  his  brilliant  campaign.  The 
Spaniard’s  victories  were,  indeed,  mainly  attributable  to  the 
experience,  the  genius,  and  the  rancour  of  De  Rosnes.31 

But  debates  over  a  lost  battle  are  apt  to  be  barren.  Mean- 
31  jul  time  Fuentes,  losing  no  time  in  controversy,  ad- 
1595”  ''  ’  vanced  upon  the  city  of  Dourlens,  was  repulsed  twice, 
and  carried  it  on  the  third  assault,  exactly  one  week  after  the 
action  just  recounted.  The  Spaniards  and  Leaguers,  howling 
« Remember  Ham  !”  butchered  without  mercy  the  garrison 
and  all  the  citizens,  save  a  small  number  of  prisoners  likely 
to  be  lucrative.  Six  hundred  of  the  townspeople  and  two 
thousand  five  hundred  French  soldiers  were  killed  within  a 
few  hours.  Well  had  Fuentes  profited  by  the  relationship  and 

tuition  of  Alva  ! 

The  Count  of  Dinant  and  his  brother  De  Eonsoy  were  both 
slain,  and  two  or  three  hundred  thousand  florins  weie  paid  in  ^ 
ransom  by  those  who  escaped  with  life.  The  victims  were 
all  buried  outside  of  the  town  in  one  vast  trench,  and  the 
effluvia  bred  a  fever  which  carried  off  most  of  the  surviving 
inhabitants.  Dourlens  became  for  the  time  a  desert.  ’2 

Fuentes  now  received  deputies  with  congratulations  fiom 
the  obedient  provinces,  especially  from  Hainault,  Artois,  and 
Lille.  He  was  also  strongly  urged  to  attempt  the  immediate 

31  De  Tliou,  Bor,  Coloma,  Bentivoglio,  et  al,  TJbi  supra.  8*  tbid. 


1595. 


OPERATIONS  IN  THE  NETHERLANDS. 


335 


reduction  of  Cambray,  to  which  end  those  envoys  were  em¬ 
powered  to  offer  contributions  of  four  hundred  and  -fifty 
thousand  florins  and  a  contingent  of  seven  thousand  infantry. 
Berlayinont,  too,  bishop  of  Tournay  and  archbishop  of  Cam- 
bray,  was  ready  to  advance  forty  thousand  florins  in  the  same 
cause. 

Fuentes,  in  the  highest  possible  spirits  at  his  success,  and 
having  just  been  reinforced  by  Count  Bucquoy  with  a  fresh 
Walloon  regiment  of  fifteen  hundred  foot  and  with  eight 
hundred  and  fifty  of  the  mutineers  from  Tirlemont  and 
Chapelle,  who  were  among  the  choicest  of  Spanish  veterans, 
was  not  disposed  to  let  the  grass  grow  under  his  feet.  Within 
four  days  after  the  sack  of  Dourlens  he  broke  up  his  camp, 
and  came  before  Cambray  with  an  army  of  twelve  thousand 
foot  and  nearly  four  thousand  horse.  But  before  narrating 
the  further  movements  of  the  vigorous  new  governor-general, 
it  is  necessary  to  glance  at  the  military  operations  in  the 
eastern  part  of  the  Netherlands  and  upon  the  Rhine. 

The  States-General  had  reclaimed  to  their  authority  nearly 
all  that  important  region  lying  beyond  the  Yssel — the  solid 
Frisian  bulwark  of  the  republic — but  there  were  certain 
points  nearer  the  line  where  Upper  and  Nether  Germany 
almost  blend  into  one,  which  yet  acknowledged  the  name  of 
the  king.  The  city  of  Groenlo,  or  Grol,  not  a  place  of  much 
interest  or  importance  in  itself,  but  close  to  the  14Jul7 
frontier,  and  to  that  destined  land  of  debate,  the  1595* 
duchies  of  Cleves,  Juliers,  and  Berg,  still  retained  its  Spanish 
garrison.  On  the  14th  July  Prince  Maurice  of  Nassau  came 
before  the  city  with  six  thousand  infantry,  some  companies  of 
cavalry,  and  sixteen  pieces  of  artillery.  He  made  his  ap¬ 
proaches  in  form,  and  after  a  week's  operations  he  2i  July, 
fired  three  volleys,  according  to  his  custom,  and 
summoned  the  place  to  capitulate.33  Governor  Jan  van  Stirum 
replied  stoutly  that  he  would  hold,  the  plane  for  God  and  the 
king  to  the  last  drop  of  his  blood.  Meantime  there  was  hope 
of  help  from  the  outside. 


23  Bor,  XII.  42. 


336 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXIL 


Maurice  was  a  vigorous  young  commander,  but  there  was 
a  man  to  be  dealt  with  who  had  been  called  the  “  good  old 
Mondragon  ”  when  the  prince  was  in  his  cradle  ;  and  who  still 
governed  the  citadel  of  Antwerp,  and  was  still  ready  for  an 
active  campaign. 

Christopher  Mondragon  was  now  ninety-two  years  old. 
Not  often  in  the  world’s  history  has  a  man  of  that  age  been 
capable  of  personal  participation  in  the  joys  of  the  battle¬ 
field,  whatever  natural  reluctance  veterans  are  apt  to  manifest 
at  relinquishing  high  military  control. 

But  Mondragon  looked  not  with  envy  but  with  admiration 
on  the  growing  fame  of  the  Nassau  chieftain,  and  was  dis¬ 
posed,  before  he  himself  left  the  stage,  to  match  himself  with 
the  young  champion. 

So.  soon  as  he  heard  of  the  intended  demonstration  of 
Maurice  against  Grol,  the  ancient  governor  of  Antwerp  col¬ 
lected  a  little  army  by  throwing  together  all  the  troops  that 
could  be  spared  from  the  various  garrisons  within  his  com¬ 
mand.  With  two  Spanish  regiments,  two  thousand  Swiss, 
the  Walloon  troops  of  De  Grisons,  and  the  Irish  regiment  of 
Stanley — in  all  seven  thousand  foot  and  thirteen  hundred 
horse — Mondragon  marched  straight  across  Brabant  and  Gel- 
derland  to  the  Rhine.  At  Kaiserworth  he  reviewed  his  forces, 
and  announced  his  intention  of  immediately  crossing  the 
river.  There  was  a  murmur  of  disapprobation  among  officers 
and  men  at  what  they  considered  the  foolhardy  scheme  of 
mad  old  Mondragon.  But  the  general  had  not  campaigned 
a  generation  before,  at  the  age  of  sixty-nine,  in  the  bottom 
of  the  sea,  and  waded  chin-deep  for  six  hours  long  of  an 
October  night,  in  the  face  of  a  rising  tide  from  the  German 
Ocean  and  of  an  army  of  Zeelanders,  to  be  frightened  now  at 
the  summer  aspect  of  the  peaceful  Rhine. 

The  wizened  little  old  man,  walking  with  difficulty  by  the 
aid  of  a  staff,  but  armed  in  proof,  with  plumes  waving  gal¬ 
lantly  from  his  iron  headpiece,  and  with  his  rapier  at  his  side, 
ordered  a  chair  to  be  brought  to  the  river’s  edge.  Then 
calmly  seating  himself  in  the- presence  of  his  host,  he  stated 


1595. 


RELIEF  OF  GROL. 


337 


that  he  should  not  rise  from  that  chair  until  the  last  man 
had  crossed  the  river.34  Furthermore,  he  observed  that  it 
was  not  only  his  purpose  to  relieve  the  city  of  Grol,  hut 
to  bring  Maurice  to  an  action,  and  to  defeat  him,  unless 
he  retired.  The  soldiers  ceased  to  murmur,  the  pontoons 
were  laid,  the  river  was  passed,  and  on  the  25th  25  July, 
July,  Maurice,  hearing  of  the  veteran’s  approach,  1595* 
and  not  feeling  safe  in  his  position,  raised  the  siege  of  the 
city.35  Burning  his  camp  and  everything  that  could  not  be 
taken  with  him  on  his  march,  the  prince  came  in  perfect 
order  to  Borkelo,  two  Dutch  miles  from  Grol.  Here  he  occu¬ 
pied  himself  for  some  time  in  clearing  the  country  of  brigands 
who  in  the  guise  of  soldiers  infested  that  region  and  made 
the  little  cities  of  Deutecom,  Anliolt,  and  Heerenberg  unsafe. 
He  ordered  the  inhabitants  of  these  places  to  send  out  detach¬ 
ments  to  beat  the  bushes  for  his  cavalry,  while  Hohenlo  was 
ordered  to  hunt  the  heaths  and  wolds  thoroughly  with  packs 
of  bloodhounds  until  every  man  and  beast  to  be  found  lurking 
in  those  wild  regions  should  be  extirpated.  By  these  vigorous 
and  cruel,  but  perhaps  necessary,  measures  the  brigands  were 
at  last  extirpated,  and  honest  people  began  to  sleep  in  their 
beds.36' 

On  the  18th  August  Maurice  took  up  a  strong  position  at 
Bislich,  not  far  from  Wesel,  where  the  Kiver  Lippe  ig  August, 
empties  itself  into  the  Rhine.  Mondragon,  with  1595- 
his  army  strengthened  by  reinforcements  from  garrisons  in 
Gelderland,  and  by  four  hundred  men  brought  by  Frederic 
van  den  Berg  from  Grol,  had  advanced  to  a  place  called 
Walston  in  den  Ham,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Wesel.  The 
Lippe  flowed  between  the  two  hostile  forces.  Although  he 
had  broken  up  his  siege,  the  prince  was  not  disposed  to  re¬ 
nounce  his  whole  campaign  before  trying  conclusions  with  his 
veteran  antagonist.  He  accordingly  arranged  an  ambush  with 
much  skill,  by  means  of  which  he  hoped  to  bring  on  a  general 
engagement  and  destroy  Mondragon  and  his  little  army. 


34  Carnero,  lib.  xi.  cap.  xvi,  p.  374.  35  Ibid ;  compare  Bor,  XII.  42. 

36  Bor,  IV.  43. 


VOL.  III. — Z 


338 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXI. 


His  cousin  and  favourite  lieutenant,  Philip  Nassau,  was 

1  Sept,  entrusted  with  the  preliminaries.  That  adven- 
1595.  turous  commander,  with  a  picked  force  of  seven 

hundred  cavalry,  moved  quietly  from  the  camp  on  the  even¬ 
ing  of  the  1st  September.  He  took  with  him  his  two 
younger  brothers,  Ernest  and  Lewis  Gunther,  who,  as  has 
been  seen,  had  received  the  promise  of  the  eldest  brother  of 
the  family,  William  Lewis,  that  they  should  he  employed 
from  time  to  time  in  any  practical  work  that  might  he  going 
forward.  Besides  these  young  gentlemen,  several  of  the 
most  famous  English  and  Dutch  commanders  were  on  the 
expedition ;  the  brothers  Paul  and  Marcellus  Bax,  Captains 
Parker,  Cutler,  and  Robert  Yere,  brother  of  Sir  Francis, 
among  the  number. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  the  2nd  September  the  force 

2  Sept,  crossed  the  Lippe,  according  to  orders,  keeping  a 
1595.  pontoon  across  the  stream  to  secure  their  retreat. 

They  had  instructions  thus  to  feel  the  enemy  at  early  dawn, 
and,  as  he  was  known  to  have  foraging  parties  out  every 
morning  along  the  margin  of  the  river,  to  make  a  sudden 
descent  upon  their  pickets,  and  to  capture  those  companies 
before  they  could  effect  their  escape  or  be  reinforced.  After¬ 
wards  they  were  to  retreat  across  the  Lippe,  followed,  as  it 
was  hoped  would  be  the  case,  by  the  troops  of  Mondragon, 
anxious  to  punish  this  piece  of  audacity.  Meantime  Maurice 
with  five  thousand  infantry,  the  rest  of  his  cavalry,  and 
several  pieces  of  artillery,  awaited  their  coming,  posted  behind 
some  hills  in  the  neighbourhood  of  W esel. 

The  plot  of  the  young  commander  was  an  excellent  one, 
but  the  ancient  campaigner  on  the  other  side  of  the  river 
had  not  come  all  the  way  from  his  comfortable  quarters 
in  Antwerp  to  be  caught  napping  on  that  September  morn¬ 
ing.  Mondragon  had  received  accurate  information  from 
his  scouts  as  to  what  was  going  on  in  the  enemy’s  camp,  and 
as  to  the  exact  position  of  Maurice.  He  was  up  long  before 
daybreak — “the  good  old  Christopher” — and  himself  per¬ 
sonally  arranged  a  counter-ambush.  In  the  fields  lying  a 


1595.  EXPLOIT  OF  MONDRAGON.  339 

little  back  from  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  the  Lippe 
he  posted  the  mass  of  his  cavalry,  supported  by  a  well-con¬ 
cealed  force  of  infantry.  The  pickets  on  the  stream  and  the 
foraging  companies  were  left  to  do  their  usual  work  as  if 
nothing  were  likely  to  happen. 

Philip  Nassau  galloped  cheerfully  forward,  according  to 
the  well-concerted  plan,  sending  Cutler  and  Marcellus  Bax 
with  a  handful  of  troopers  to  pounce  upon  the  enemy’s  pickets. 
When  those  officers  got  to  the  usual  foraging  ground  they 
came  upon  a  much  larger  cavalry  force  than  they  had  looked 
for  ;  and,  suspecting  something  wrong,  dashed  back  again  to 
give  information  to  Count  Philip.  That  impatient  commander, 
feeling  sure  of  his  game  unless  this  foolish  delay  should  give 
the  foraging  companies  time  to  escape,  ordered  an  immediate 
advance  with  his  whole  cavalry  force.  The  sheriff  of  Zallant 
was  ordered  to  lead  the  way.  He  objected  that  the  pass, 
leading  through  a  narrow  lane  and  opening  by  a  gate  into  an 
open  field,  was  impassable  for  more  than  two  troopers  abreast, 
and  that  the  enemy  was  in  force  beyond.  Philip,  scorning 
these  words  of  caution,  and  exclaiming  that  seventy-five 
lancers  were  enough  to  put  fifty  carabineers  to  rout,  put  011 
his  casque,  drew  his  sword,  and  sending  his  brother  Lewis  to  - 
summon  Kinski  and  Donck,  dashed  into  the  pass,  accom¬ 
panied  by  the  two  counts  and  a  couple  of  other  nobles.  The 
sheriff,  seeing  this,  followed  him  at  full  gallop,  and  after  him 
came  the  troopers  of  Barchon,  of  Du  Bois,  and  of  Paul  Bax, 
riding  single  file  but  in  much  disorder.  When  they  had  all 
entered  inextricably  into  the  lane,  with  the  foremost  of  the 
lancers  already  passing  through  the  gate,  they  discovered  the 
enemy’s  cavalry  and  'infantry  drawn  up  in  force  upon  the 
watery,  heathery  pastures  beyond.  There  was  at  once  a 
scene  of  confusion.  To  use  lances  was  impossible,  while  they 
were  all  struggling  together  through  the  narrow  passage, 
offering  themselves  an  easy  prey  to  the  enemy  as  they  slowly 
emerged  into  the  fields.  The  foremost  defended  themselves 
with  sabre  and  pistol  as  well  as  they  could.  The  hindmost 
did  their  best  to  escape,  and  rode  for  their  lives  to  the  other 


/ 


340 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  NXXI. 


side  of  the  river.  All  trampled  upon  each  other  and  impeded 
each  other’s  movements.  There  was  a  brief  engagement, 
bloody,  desperate,  hand  to  hand,  and  many  Spaniards  fell 
before  the  entrapped  Netherlanders.  But  there  could  not  be 
a  moment’s  doubt  as  to  the  issue.  Count  Philip  went  down 
in  the  beginning  of  the  action,  shot  through  the  body  by  an 
arquebus,  discharged  so  close  to  him  that  his  clothes  were 
set  on  fire.  As  there  was  no  water  within  reach  the  flames 
could  be  extinguished  at  last  only  by  rolling  him  over  and 
over,  wounded  as  he  was,  among  the  sand  and  heather.  Count 
Ernest  Solms  was  desperately  wounded  at  the  same  time. 
For  a  moment  both  gentlemen  attempted  to  effect  their 
escape  by  mounting  on  one  horse,  but  both  fell  to  the  ground 
exhausted  and  were  taken  prisoners.  Ernest  Nassau  was  also 
captured.  His  young  brother,  Lewis  Gunther,  saved  himself 
by  swimming  the  river.  Count  Kinski  was  mortally  wounded. 
Robert  Yere,  too,  fell  into  the  enemy’s  hands,  and  was  after¬ 
wards  murdered  in  cold  blood.  Marcellus  Bax,  who  had 
returned  to  the  field  by  a  circuitous  path,  still  under  the 
delusion  that  he  was  about  handsomely  to  cut  off  the  retreat 
of  the  foraging  companies,  saved  himself  and  a  handful  of 
cavalry  by  a  rapid  flight,  so  soon  as  he  discovered  the  enemy 
drawn  up  in  line  of  battle.  Cutler  and  Parker  were  equally 
fortunate.  There  was  less  than  a  hundred  of  the  States’ 
troops  killed,  and  it  is  probable  that  a  larger  number  of  the 
Spaniards  fell.  But  the  loss  of  Philip  Nassau,  despite  the 
debauched  life  and  somewhat  reckless  valour  of  that  soldier, 
was  a  very  severe  one  to  the  army  and  to  his  family.  He 
was  conveyed  to  Rheinberg,  where  his  wounds  were  dressed. 
As  he  lay  dying  he  was  courteously  visited  by  Mondragon, 
and  by  many  other  Spanish  officers,  anxious  to  pay  their 
respects  to  so  distinguished  and  warlike  a  member  of  an  illus¬ 
trious  house.  He  received  them  with  dignity,  and  concealed 
his  physical  agony  so  as  to  respond  to  their  conversation  as 
became  a  Nassau.  His  cousin,  Frederic  van  den  Berg,  who 
was  among  the  visitors,  indecently  taunted  him  with  his 
position  ;  asking  him  what  he  had  expected  by  serving  the 


1594. 


DEATH  OF  PHILIP  NASSAU. 


341 


cause  of  the  Beggars.  Philip  turned  from  him  with  impa¬ 
tience  and  bade  him  hold  his  peace.  At  midnight  he  died. 

William  of  Orange  and  his  three  brethren  had  already  laid 
down  their  lives  for  the  republic,  and  now  his  eldest  brother's 
son  had  died  in  the  same  cause.  “  He  has  carried  the  name 
of  Nassau  with  honour  into  the  grave,"  said  his  brother, 
Lewis  William,  to  their  father.37  Ten  others  of  the  house, 
besides  many  collateral  relations,  were  still  in  arms  for  their 
adopted  country.  Rarely  in  history  has  a  single  noble  race 
so  entirely  identified  itself  with  a  nation's  record  in  its  most 
heroic  epoch  as  did  that  of  Orange-Nassau  with  the  libera¬ 
tion  of  Holland. 

Young  Ernest  Solms,  brother  of  Count  Everard,  lay  in  the 
same  chamber  with  Philip  Nassau,  and  died  on  the  following 
day.  Their  bodies  were  sent  by  Mondragon  with  a  courteous 

letter  to  Maurice  at  Bisslich.  Ernest  Nassau  was  subse- 

/ 

quently  ransomed  for  ten  thousand  florins.38 

This  skirmish  on  the  Lippe  has  no  special  significance  in 
a  military  point  of  view,  hut  it  derives  more  than  a  passing 
interest,  not  only  from  the  death  of  many  a  brave  and  dis¬ 
tinguished  soldier,  hut  for  the  illustration  of  human  vigour 
triumphing,  both  physically  and  mentally,  over  the  infirmi¬ 
ties  of  old  age,  given  by  the  achievement  of  Christopher 
Mondragon.  Alone  he  had  planned  his  expedition  across 
the  country  from  Antwerp,  alone  he  had  insisted  on  crossing 
the  Rhine,  while  younger  soldiers  hesitated  ;  alone,  with  his 
own  active  brain  and  busy  hands,  he  had  outwitted  the 
famous  young  chieftain  of  the  Netherlands,  counteracted  his 
subtle  policy,  and  set  the  counter-ambush  by  which  his 
choicest  cavalry  were  cut  to  pieces,  and  one  of  his  bravest 
generals  slain.  So  far  could  the  icy  blood  of  ninety-two 
prevail  against  the  vigour  of  twenty-eight. 

Tift  two  armies  lay  over  against  each  other,  with  the  river 
between  them,  for  some  days  longer,  but  it  was  obvious  that 


31  Grroen  v.  Prinsterer.  (Archives  I. 
2nd  series,  345.) 

38  Bor,  IV.  42-44.  Meteren,  361 vo. 
Reyd,  xi.  271.  Coloma,  192,  Carnero, 


xi.  xvi.  p.  574,  seqq.  Bentivoglio,  422, 
423.  Duyck,  652-659 ;  are  chief  au 
thorities  for  the  incidents  of  this  skir¬ 
mish. 


342  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXI. 

nothing  further  would  he  attempted  on  either  side.  Mon¬ 
dragon  had  accomplished  the  object  for  which  he  had 
marched  from  Brabant.  He  had  spoiled  the  autumn  cam¬ 
paign  of  Maurice,  and  was  now  disposed  to  return  before 
winter  to  his  own  quarters.  He  sent  a  trumpet  accordingly 
to  his  antagonist,  begging  him,  half  in  jest,  to  have  more 
consideration  for  his  infirmities  than  to  keep  him  out  in  his 
old  age  in  such  foul  weather,  hut  to  allow  him  the  military 
honour  of  being  last  to  bkeak  up  camp.  Should  Maurice 
consent  to  move  away,  Mondragon  was  ready  to  pledge  him¬ 
self  not  to  pursue  him,  and  within  three  days  to  leave  his 
own  entrenchments. 

The  proposition  was  not  granted,  and  very  soon  afterwards 

11  Oct.  the  Spaniard,  deciding  to  retire,  crossed  the  Rhine 

1595.  on  the  11th  October.  Maurice  made  a  slight 
attempt  at  pursuit,  sending  Count  William  Lewis  with  some 
cavalry,  who  succeeded  in  cutting  off  a  few  wagons.  The 
army,  however,  returned  safely,  to  be  dispersed  into  various 

garrisons.39 

This  was  Mondragon’s  last  feat  of  arms.  Less  than  three 

3Jan>  months  afterwards,  in  Antwerp  citadel,  as  the 

1596.  veteran  was  washing  his  hands  previously  to  going 
to  the  dinner-table,  he  sat  down  and  died.40  Strange  to  say, 
this  man — who  had  spent  -almost  a  century  on  the  battle¬ 
field,  who  had  been  a  soldier  in  nearly  every  war  that  had 
been  waged  in  any  part  of  Europe  during  that  most  bel¬ 
ligerent  age,  who  had  come  an  old  man  to  the  Netherlands 
before  Alva’s  arrival,  and  had  ever  since  been  constantly  and 
personally  engaged  in  the  vast  Flemish  tragedy  which  had 
now  lasted  well  nigh  thirty  years — had  never  himself  lost  a 
drop  of  blood.  His  battle-fields  had  been  on  land  and  watei , 
on  ice,  in  fire,  and  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  but  he  had  nevei 
received  a  wound.  Nay,  more ;  he  had  been  blown  uf  in  a 
fortress — the  castle  of  Danvilliers  in  Luxembourg,  of  which  he 
was  governor — where  all  perished  save  his  wife  and  himself, 

39  Bor.  Meteren.  Reyd.  Coloma.  Carnero.  Bentivoglio.  Duyck.  Ubisup. 

4o  Bor,  IV.  167. 


1595.  SIEGE  OF  WEERD  CASTLE.  343 

and,  when  they  came  to  dig  among  the  ruins,  they  excavated 
at  last  the  ancient  couple,  protected  by  the  framework  of  a 
window  in  the  embrasure  of  which  they  had  been  seated, 
without  a  scratch  or  a  bruise.41  He  was  a  Biscayan  by 
descent,  hut  horn  in  Medina  del  Campo.  A  strict  dis¬ 
ciplinarian,  very  resolute  and  pertinacious,  he  had  the  good 
fortune  to  he  beloved  by  his  inferiors,  his  equals,  and  his 
superiors.  He  was  called  the  father  of  his  soldiers,  the  good 
Mondragon,  and  his  name  was  unstained  by  any  of  those 
deeds  of  ferocity  which  make  the  chronicles  of  the  time 
resemble  rather  the  history  of  wolves  than  of  men.  To  a 
married  daughter,  mother  of  several  children,  he  left  a  con¬ 
siderable  fortune.42 

Maurice  broke  up  his  camp  soon  after  the  departure  of  his 
antagonist,  and  paused  for  a  few  days  at  Arnheim  to  give 
honourable  burial  to  his  cousin  Philip  and  Count  Solms. 
Meantime  Sir  Francis  Yere  was  detached,  with  three  regi¬ 
ments,  which  were  to  winter  in  Overyssel,  towards  Weerd 
castle,  situate  at  a  league’s  distance  from  \sselsburg,  and 
defended  by  a  garrison  of  twenty-six  men  under  Captain 
Pruys.  That  doughty  commandant,  on  being  summoned  to 
surrender,  obstinately  refused.  Yere,  according  to  Maurice’s 
orders,  then  opened  with  his  artillery  against  the  place,  which 
soon  capitulated  in  great  panic  and  confusion.  The  captain 
demanded  the  honours  of  war.  Yere  told  him  in  reply  that 
the  honours  of  war  were  halters  for  the  garrison  who  had 
dared  to  defend  such  a  hovel  against  artillery.  The  twenty- 
six  were  accordingly  ordered  to  draw  black  #  and  white  straws. 
This  was  done,  and  the  twelve  drawing  white  straws  were 
immediately  hanged  ;  the  thirteenth  receiving  his  life  on 
consenting  to  act  as  executioner  for  his  comrades.  The 
commandant  was  despatched  first  of  all.  The  rope  broke, 
but  the  English  soldiers  held  him  under  the  water  of  the 


41  Bor,  IV.  167.  Carnero,  878,  379. 

42  Bor,  IV.  167. 

In  tlie  Ambras  Musseum  in  the  Im¬ 
perial  Belvedere  palace  at  Vienna 
may  still  be  seen  a  black,  battered ,  old 
iron  corslet  of  Mondragon,  with  many 


an  indentation ;  looking  plain  and 
practical  enough  among  tlie  holiday 
suits  of  steel  inlaid  with  gold,  which 
make  this  collection  of  old  armour 
the  most  remarkable  in  the  world. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXI. 


344 


ditch  until  he  was  drowned.  The  castle  was  then  thoroughly 
sacked,  the  women  being  sent  unharmed  to  Ysselshurg. 

Maurice  then  shipped  the  remainder  of  his  troops  along 
the  Rhine  and  Waal  to  their  winter  quarters  and  returned  to 
the  Hague.  It  was  the  feeblest  year’s  work  yet  done  by  the 
stadholder. 

Meantime  his  great  ally,  the  Huguenot-Catholic  Prince  of 
Bearne,  was  making  a  dashing,  and,  on  the  whole,  successful 
campaign  in  the  heart  of  his  own  kingdom.  The  constable 
of  Castile,  Don  Ferdinando  de  Yelasco,  one  of  Spain’s  richest 
grandees  and  poorest  generals,  had  been  sent  with  an  army  ot 
ten  thousand  men  to  take  the  field  in  Burgundy  against  the 
man  with  whom  the  great  Farnese  had  been  measuring- 
swords  so  lately,  and  with  not  unmingled  success,  in  Picardy. 
Biron,  with  a  sudden  sweep,  took  possession  of  Aussone, 
Autun,  and  Beaune,  but  on  one  adventurous  day  found  him¬ 
self  so  deeply  engaged  with  a  superior  force  of  the  enemy  in 
the  neighbourhood  ot  Fontaine  Fran^aise,  or  St.  Seine,  where 
France’s  great  river  takes  its  rise,  as  to  be  nearly  cut  off  and 
captured.  But  Henry  himself  was  already  in  the  field,  and 
by  one  of  those  mad,  reckless  impulses  which  made  him  so 
adorable  as  a  soldier  and  yet  so  profoundly  censurable  as  a 
commander-in-chief,  he  flung  himself,  like  a  young  lieutenant, 
with  a  mere  handful  of  cavalry,  into  the  midst  of  the  fight, 
and  at  the  imminent  peril  of  his  own  life  succeeded  in  res¬ 
cuing  the  marshal  and  getting  off  again  unscathed.  On  other 
occasions  Henry  said  he  had  fought  for  victory,  but  on  that 
for  dear  life  ;  and,  even  as  in  the  famous  and  foolish  skirmish 
at  Aumale  three  years  before,  it  was  absence  of  enterprise  or 
lack  of  cordiality  on  the  part  of  his  antagonists,  that  alone 
prevented  a  captive  king  from  being  exhibited  as  a  trophy  of 
triumph  for  the  expiring  League.44 

But  the  constable  of  Castile  was  not  born  to  cheer  the 
heart  of  his  prudent  master  with  such  a  magnificent  spectacle. 
Velasco  fell  back  to  Gray  and  obstinately  refused  to  stir  from 


43  Bor,  IV.  47,  131. 

44  Ibid.  52,  seqq.  De  TRou,  xii.  359-364,  seqq.  1.412. 


Perefixe.  191,  192. 


SURRENDER  OF  DIJON. 


1595. 


345 


his  entrenchments,  while  Henry  before  his  eyes  laid  siege  to 
Dijon.  On  the  28th  June  the  capital  of  Burgundy  2s  June, 
surrendered  to  its  sovereign,  hut  no  temptations  1595. 
could  induce  the  constable  to  try  the  chance  of  a  battle. 
Henry's  movements  in  the  interior  were  more  successful 
than  were  the  operations  nearer  the  frontier,  hut  while  the 
monarch  was  thus  cheerfully  fighting  for  his  crown  in  France, 
his  envoys  were  winning  a  still  more  decisive  campaign  for 
him  in  Borne. 

D’Ossat  and  Perron  had  accomplished  their  diplomatic 
task  with  consummate  ability,  and,  notwithstanding  the 
efforts  and  the  threats  of  the  Spanish  ambassador  and  the 
intrigues  of  his  master,  the  absolution  was  granted.  The 
pope  arose  early  on  the  morning  of  the  5th  August,  and 
walked  barefoot  from  his  palace  of  Mount  Cavallo  to  the 
church  of  Maria  Maggiore,  with  his  eyes  fixed  on  the  ground, 
weeping  loudly  and  praying  fervently.  He  celebrated  mass 
in  the  church,  and  then  returned  as  he  went,  saluting  no  one 
on  the  road  and  shutting  himself  up  in  his  palace  afterwards. 
The  same  ceremony  was  performed  ten  days  later  on  the 
festival  of  our  Lady's  Ascension.  In  vain,  however,  had 
been  the  struggle  on  the  part  of  his  Holiness  to  August, 
procure  from  the  ambassador  the  deposition  of  the  1595. 
crown  of  France  in  his  hands,  in  order  that  the  king  might 
receive  it  back  again  as  a  free  gift  and  concession  from  the 
chief  pontiff.  Such  a  triumph  was  not  for  Rome,  nor  could 
even  the  publication  of  the  Council  of  Trent  in  France  be 
conceded  except  with  a  saving  clause  “  as  to  matters  which 
could  not  be  put  into  operation  without  troubling  the  repose 
of  the  kingdom."  And  to  obtain  this  clause  the  envoys 
declared  “that  they  had  been  obliged  to  sweat  blood  and 
water."  46 

On  the  17th  day  of  September  the  absolution  was  pro¬ 
claimed  with  great  pomp  and  circumstance  from  the  gallery 
of  St.  Peter's,  the  holy  father  seated  on  the  highest  throne 


45  Bor,  ubi  sup. 

46  Letters  of  D’Ossat,  in  Bor,  IV.  107,  seqq.  De  Tliou,  xii.  468-479, 1.  113. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXI. 


346 


of  majesty,  with  his  triple  crown  on  his  head,  and  all  his 
cardinals  and  bishops  about  him  in  their  most  effulgent 

robes.47 

The  silver  trumpets  were  blown,  while  artillery  roared 
from  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo,  and  for  two  successive  nights 
Rome  was  in  a  blaze  of  bonfires  and  illumination,  in  a 
whirl  of  hell-ringing,  feasting,  and  singing  of  hosannahs. 
There  had  not  been  such  a  merry-making  in  the  eternal  city 
since  the  pope  had  celebrated  solemn  thanksgiving  for  the 
massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew.  The  king  was  almost  be¬ 
side  himself  with  rapture  when  the  great  news  reached  him, 
and  he  straightway  wrote  letters,  overflowing  with  gratitude 
and  religious  enthusiasm,  to  the  pontiff  and  expressed  his 
regret  that  military  operations  did  not  allow  him  to  proceed 
at  once  to  Rome  in  person  to  kiss  the  holy  father’s  feet.48 

The  narrative  returns  to  F uentes,  who  was  left  before  the 
walls  of  Cambray. 

That  venerable  ecclesiastical  city,  pleasantly  seated  amid 
gardens,  orchards,  and  green  pastures,  watered  by  the  winding 
Scheld,  was  well  fortified  after  the  old  manner,  but  it  was 
especially  defended  and  dominated  by  a  splendid  pentagonal 
citadel  built  by  Charles  V.  It  was  filled  with  fine  churches, 
among  which  the  magnificent  cathedral  was  pre-eminent,  and 
with  many  other  stately  edifices.  The  population  was  thrifty, 
active,  and  turbulent,  like  that  of  all  those  Flemish  and 
Walloon  cities  which  the  spirit  of  medieval  industry  had 
warmed  for  a  time  into  vehement  little  republics. 

But,  as  has  already  been  depicted  in  these  pages,  the 
Celtic  element  had  been  more  apt  to  receive  than  consistent 
to  retain  the  generous  impress  which  had  once  been  stamped 
on  all  the  Netherlands.  The  Walloon  provinces  had  fallen 
away  from  their  Flemish  sisters  and  seemed  likely  to  accept 
a  permanent  yoke,  while  in  the  territory  of  the  united 
States,,  as  John  Baptist  Tassis  was  at  that 'Very  moment 


47  Letters  of  D’Ossat,  ubi  sup. 

48  MS.  Bethune.  Bibl.  Imp.  No. 
8967, fols.  10  and  20,  cited  in  Capefigue, 


vii.  292,  seqq.  Feria  to  Philip,  17 
Sept.  1595.  Arch,  de  Simancas  (Paris) 
b.  84.  20,  cited  by  Capefigue,  ubi  sup. 


1595.  BALAGNY  AT  CAMBRAY.  347 

pathetically  observing  in  a  private  letter  to  Philip,  “  with 
the  coming  up  of  a  new  generation  educated  as  heretics  from 
childhood,  who  had  never  heard  what  the  word  king  means, 
it  was  likely  to  happen  at  last  that  the  king's  memory  being 
wholly  forgotten  nothing  would  remain  in  the  land  hut  heresy 
alone."49  From  this  sad  fate  Cambray  had  been  saved. 
G-avre  d'Inchy  had  seventeen  years  before  surrendered  the 
city  to  the  Duke  of  Alen^on  during  that  unlucky  personage's 
brief  and  base  career  in  the  Netherlands,  all  that  was  left  of 
his  visit  being  the  semi-sovereignty  which  the  notorious 
Balagny  had  since  that  time  enjoyed  in  the  archiepiscopal 
city.  This  personage,  a  natural  son  of  Monluc,  Bishop 
of  Valence,  and  nephew  of  the  distinguished  Marshal  Monluc, 
was  one  of  the  most  fortunate  and  the  most  ignoble  of  all  the 
soldiers  of  fortune  who  had  played  their  part  at  this  epoch 
in  the  Netherlands.  A  poor  creature  himself,  he  had  a 
heroine  for  a  wife.  Renee,  the  sister  of  Bussy  d'Amboise, 
had  vowed  to  unite  herself  to  a  man  who  would  avenge  the 
assassination  of  her  brother  by  the  Count  Montsoreau.50 
Balagny  readily  agreed  to  perform  the  deed,  and  accordingly 
espoused  the  high-born  dame,  but  it  does  not  appear  that  he 
ever  wreaked  her  vengeance  on  the  murderer.  He  had  now 
governed  Cambray  until  the  citizens  and  the  whole  country¬ 
side  were  galled  and  exhausted  by  his  grinding  tyranny,  his 
inordinate  pride,  and  his  infamous  extortions.51  His  latest 
achievement  had  been  to  force  upon  his  subjects-  a  copper 
currency  bearing  the  nominal  value  of  silver,  with  the  same 
blasting  effects  which  such  experiments  in  political  economy 
are  apt  to  produce  on  princes  and  peoples.  He  had  been  a 
Royalist,  a  G-uisist,  a  Leaguer,  a  Dutch  republican,  by  turns, 
and  had  betrayed  all  the  parties,  at  whose  expense  he  had 
alternately  filled  his  coffers.  During  the  past  year  he  had 
made  up  his  mind — like  most  of  the  conspicuous  politicians 
and  campaigners  of  France — that  the  moribund  League  was 
only  fit  to  be  trampled  upon  by  its  recent  worshippers,  and  he 
had  made  accordingly  one  of  the  very  best  bargains  with 
49  Letter  of  Tassis,  in  Bor,  IV.  126.  60  De  Thou,  xii.  414,  415.  51  Ibid. 


348 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXI. 


Henry  IV.  tha{  had  yet  been  made;  even  at  that  epoch  of 
self-vending  grandees. 

Henry,  hy  treaty  ratified  in  August,  1594,  had  created  him 
Prince  of  Cambray  and  Marshal  of  France,  so  that  the  man 
who  had  been  receiving  up  to  that  very  moment  a  monthly 
subsidy  of  seven  thousand  two  hundred  dollars  from  the  King 
of  Spain  was  now  gratified  with  a  pension  to  about  the  same 
yearly  amount  by  the  King  of  France.52  During  the  autumn 
Henry  had  visited  Cambray,  and  the  new  prince  hqd  made 
wondrous  exhibitions  of  loyalty  to  the  sovereign  whom  he  had 
done  his  best  all  his  life  to  exclude  from  his  kingdom.  There 
had  been  a  ceaseless  round  of  tournaments,  festivals,  and  mas¬ 
querades  53  in  the  city  in  honour  of  the  Huguenot  chieftain, 
now  changed  into  the  most  orthodox  and  most  legitimate 
of  monarchs,  but  it  was  not  until  midsummer  of  the  present 
year  that  Balagny  was  called  on  to  defend  his  old  possessions 
and  his  new  principality  against  a  well-seasoned  army  and  a 
vigorous  commander.  Meanwhile  his  new  patron  was  so 
warmly  occupied  in  other  directions  that  it  might  be  difficult 
for  him  to  send  assistance  to  the»beleaguered  city. 

On  the  14th  August  Fuentes  began  his  siege  operations. 
14  Au o-ust  Before  the  investment  had  been  completed  the 
1595.  young  Prince  of  Rhetelois,  only  fifteen  years  of  age, 

son  of  the  Duke  of  Nevers,  made  his  entrance  into  the  city 
attended  by  thirty  of  his  father’s  archers.  De  Yich,  too,  an 
experienced  and  faithful  commander,  succeeded  in  bringing 
four  or  five  hundred  dragoons  through  the  enemy’s  lines. 
These  meagre  reinforcements  were  all  that  reached  the 
place  ;  for,  although  the  States-General  sent  two  or  three 

thousand  Scotchmen  and  Zeelanders,  under  Justinus  of  Nassau, 

.  N 

to  Henry,  that  he  might  be  the  better  enabled  to  relieve  this 


62  De  Thou,  xii.  291,  seqq.  Seventy 
thousand  crowns  a  year  were  to  he 
paid  according  to  agreement  by  Henry 
IV.  to  Balagny,  to  maintain  city  and 
citadel  of  Cambray,  by  treaty  made 
29  Nov.  1593,  but  ratified  in  August, 
1594.  Besides  this,  Balagny  received 
property  in  France  equal  in  value  to 


twenty  thousand  livres  a  year,  to  reim¬ 
burse  him  for  expenses  in  fortifying 
and  defending  Cambray. 

The  sums  paid  to  him  simultaneously 
by  Philip  II.  for  opposing  Henry  have 
been  already  mentioned. 

63  De  Thou,  ubi  sup. 


1595. 


SIEGE  OF  CAMBRAY. 


349 


important  frontier  city,  the  king’s  movements  were  not  suf¬ 
ficiently  prompt  to  turn  the  force  to  good  account.  Balagny 
was  left  with  a  garrison  of  three  thousand  French  and  Wal¬ 
loons  in  the  city,  besides  five  hundred  French  in  the  fortress. 

After  six  weeks  steady  drawing  of  parallels  and  digging  of 
mines  Fuentes  was  ready  to  open  his  batteries.  On  36  Sept, 
the  26th  September,  the  news,  very  much  exag-  1595- 
gerated,  of  .Mondragon’s  brilliant  victory  near  Wessel,  and  of 
the  deaths  of  Philip  Nassau  and  Ernest  Solms,  reached  the 
Spanish  camp.  Immense  was  the  rejoicing.  Tiiumphant 
salutes  from  eighty-seven  cannon  and  many  thousand  muskets 
shook  the  earth  and  excited  bewilderment  and  anxiety  within 
the  walls  of  the  city.  Almost  immediately  afterwards  a 
tremendous  cannonade  was  begun  and  so  vigorously  sustained 
that  the  burghers,  and  part  of  the  garrison,  already  half 
rebellious  with  hatred  to  Balagny,  began  loudly  to  murmur 
as  the  balls  came  flying  into  their  streets.  A  few  days  later 
an  insurrection  broke  out.  Three  thousand  citizens,  with  red 
flags  flying,  and  armed  to  the  teeth  were  discovered  at  day¬ 
light  drawn  up  in  the  market  place.  Balagny  2  October, 
came  down  from  the  citadel  and  endeavoured  to  1595* 
calm  the  tumult,  but  was  received  with  execrations.  They 
had  been  promised,  shouted  the  insurgents,  that  every  road 
about  Cambray  was  to  swarm  with  French  soldiers  under 
their  formidable  king,  kicking  the  heads  of  the  Spaniards54  in 
all  directions.  And  what  had  they  got  P  a  child  with  thirty 
archers,  sent  by  his  father,  and  half  a  man  at  the  head  of 
four  hundred  dragoons.55  To  stand  a  siege  under  such  cir¬ 
cumstances  against  an  army  of  fifteen  thousand  Spaniards, 
and  to  take  Balagny’s  copper  as  if  it  were  gold,  was  more 
than  could  be  asked  of  respectable  burghers. 

The  allusion  to  the  young  prince  Rhetelois  and  to  De  Yich, 
who  had  lost  a  leg  in  the  wars,  was  received  with  much 
enthusiasm.  Balagny,  appalled  at  the  fury  of  the  people, 
whom  he  had  so  long  been  trampling  upon  while  their  docility 

64  Colema,  195 — “  Su  rey  formidabile  pisaudo  las  cabe^as  de  los  Espanoles,” 
&c.,  &c.  °5  It>id. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXI. 

lasted,  shrank  back  before  their  scornful  denunciations  into 
the  citadel. 

But  his  wife  was  not  appalled.  This  princess  had  from  the 
beginning  of  the  siege  showed  a  courage  and  an  energy 
worthy  of  her  race.  Night  and  day  she  had  gone  the  rounds 
of  the  ramparts,  encouraging  and  directing  the  efforts  of  the 
garrison.  She  had  pointed  batteries  against  the  enemy’s, 
works,  and,  with  her  own  hands,  had  fired  the  cannon.  She 
now  made  her  appearance  in  the  market-place,  after  her 
husband  had  fled,  and  did  her  best  to  assuage  the  tumult,  and 
to  arouse  the  mutineers  to  a  sense  of  duty  or  of  shame.  She 
plucked  from  her  bosom  whole  handfuls  of  gold  which  she 
threw  among  the  bystanders,  and  she  was  followed  by  a 
number  of  carts  filled  with  sacks  of  coin  ready  to  be  exchanged 

for  the  debased  currency.  #  .  _ 

Expressing  contempt  for  the  progress  made  by  the  besieging 
army,  and  for  the  slight  impression  so  far  produced  upon  the 
defences  of  the  city,  she  snatched  a  pike  from  a  soldier  and 
offered  in  person  to  lead  the  garrison  to  the  breach.  Her 
audience  knew  full  well  that  this  was  no  theatrical  display, 
but  that  the  princess  was  ready  as  the  boldest  warrior  to  lead 
a  forlorn  hope  or  to  repel  the  bloodiest  assault.  Noi,  from  a 
military  point  of  view,  was  their  situation  desperate.  But 
their  hatred  -  and  scorn  for  Balagny  could  not  be  overcome  by 
any  passing  sentiment  of  admiration  for  his  valiant  though  im¬ 
perious  wife.  No  one  followed  her  to  the  breach.  Exclaiming 
that  she  at  least  would  never  surrender,  and  that  she  would 
die  a  sovereign  princess  rather  than  live  a  subject,  Renee  de 
Balagny  returned  to  the  citadel. 

The  town  soon  afterwards  capitulated,  and,  as  the  Spanish 
soldiers,  on  entering,  observed  the  slight  damage  that  had 
been  caused  by  their  batteries,  they  were  most  grateful  to  the 
faint-hearted  or  mutinous  condition  by  which  they  had  been 
spared  the  expense  of  an  assault. 

0ct  3_9  The  citadel  was  now  summoned  to  surrender,  and 
1595.  Balagny  agreed,  in  case  he  should  not  be  relieved 
within  six  days,  to  accept  what  was  considered  honourable 


1595. 


DEATH  OF  THE  PRINCESS  OF  CAMBRAY. 


351 


terms.  It  proved  too  late  to  expect  succour  from  Henry,  and 
Balagny,  but  lately  a  reigning  prince,  was  fain  to  go  forth  on 
the  appointed  day  and  salute  his  conqueror.  But  the  princess 
kept  her  vow.  She  had  done  her  best  to  defend  her  domi¬ 
nions  and  to  live  a  sovereign,  and  now  there  was  nothing  left 
her  but  to  die.*  With  bitter  reproaches  on  her  husband’s 
pusillanimity,  with  tears  and  sobs  of  rage  and  shame,  she 
refused  food,  spurned  the  idea  of  capitulation,  and  expired 
before  the  9th  of  October.56 

On  that  day  a  procession  moved  out  of  the  citadel  gates. 
Balagny,  with  a  son  of  eleven  years  of  age,  the  Prince  of 
Rhetelois,  the  Commander  De  Yich,  and  many  other  distin¬ 
guished  personages,  all  magnificently  attired,  came  forth  at 
the  head  of  what  remained  of  the  garrison.  The  soldiers, 
numbering  thirteen  hundred  foot  and  two  hundred  and 
forty  horse, .  marched  with  colours  flying,  drums  beating, 
bullet  in  mouth,  and  all  the  other  recognised  palliatives  of 
military  disaster.  Last  of  all  came  a  hearse,  bearing  the 
coffin  of  the  Princess  of  Cambray.  Fuentes  saluted  the  living 
leaders  of  the  procession,  and  the  dead  heroine,  with  stately 
courtesy,  and  ordered  an  escort  as  far  as  Peronne.57 

Balagny  met  with  a  cool  reception  from  Henry  at  St. 
Quintin,  but  subsequently  made  his  peace,  and  espoused  the 
sister  of  the  king’s  mistress,  Gabrielle  d’Hstrees.58  The  body 
of  Gavre  d’lnchy,  which  had  been  buried  for  years,  was  dug 
up  and  thrown  into  a  gutter.59 


6,5  Bor,  IY.  54-56.  Bentivoglio,  416- 
421.  De  Thou,  xii.  414-436.  Coloma, 
185-198,  et  mult,  al.,  for  the  siege  of 
Cambray. 

All  the  historians,  French,  Italian, 


Spanish,  Flemish,  give  the  same  ac¬ 
count  of  the  conduct  and  death  of  the 
princess.  67  Ibid. 

68  De  Thou,  ubi  sup.  59  Ibid. 


352 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXII. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

Archduke  Cardinal  Albert  appointed  governor  of  the  Netherlands  —  Return 
ofPliilip  William  from  captivity  —  His  adherence  to  the  King  of  Spam 
Notice  of  the  Marquis  of  Varambon,  Count  Varax,  and  other  new  officers 

_ Henry’s  communications  with  Queen  Elizabeth  Madame  de  Mon. 

ceaux  —  Conversation  of  Henry  with  the  English  ambassador  —  Marseilles 
secured  by  the  Duke  of  Guise  —  The  fort  of  Rysbank  taken  by  De  Rosne- 

Calais  in  the  hands  of  the  Spanish  — Assistance  from  England  solicited  by 
Henry— Unhandsome  conditions  proposed  by  Elizabeth  —  Annexation  of 
Calais  to  the  obedient  provinces  —  Pirates  of  Dunkirk  —  Uneasiness  of  the 
Netherlander s  with  regard  to  the  designs  of  Elizabeth  —  Her  protestations 
of  sincerity— Expedition  of  Dutch  and  English  forces  to  Spain  — Attack 
on  the  Spanish  war-ships  — Victory  of  the  allies  —  Flag  #of  the  Republic 
planted  on  the  fortress  of  Cadiz  —  Capitulation  of  the  city  —  Letter  of 
Elizabeth  to  the  Dutch  Admiral  —  State  of  affairs  in  France  Proposition 
of  the  Duke  of  Montpensier  for  the  division  of  the  kingdom  Successes  of 

the  Cardinal  Archduke  in  Normandy  — He  proceeds  to  Flanders  —  Siege 
and  capture  of  Hulst  —  Projected  alliance  against  Spain  —  Interview  of 
De  Sancy  with  Lord  Burghley  —  Diplomatic  conference  at  Greenwich  — 
Formation  of  a  league  against  Spain  —  Duplicity  of  the  treaty  Affairs  in 
Germany  —  Battle  between  the  Emperor  and  the  Grand  Turk— Endeavours 
of  Philip  to  counteract  the  influence  of  the  league  — His  interference  in 
the  affairs  of  Germany*—  Secret  intrigue  of  Henry  with  Spain— Philip’s 
second  attempt  at  the  conquest  of  England. 

Another  governor-general  arrived  in  the  early  days  of  the 
year  1596,  to  take  charge  of  the  obedient  provinces.  It  had 
been  rumoured  for  many  months  that  Philip's  choice  was  at 
last  fixed  upon  the  Archduke  Cardinal  Albert,  Archbishop  ot 
Toledo,  youngest  of  the  three  surviving  brothers  of  the  Em¬ 
peror  Rudolph,  as  the  candidate  for  many  honours.  He  was 
to  espouse  the  Infanta,  he  was  to  govern  the  Netherlands, 
and,  as  it  was  supposed,  there  were  wider  and  wilder  schemes 
for  the  aggrandizement  of  this  fortunate  ecclesiastic  blooding 
in  the  mind  of  Philip  than  yet  had  seen  the  light. 

Meantime  the  cardinal's  first  care  was  to  unfrock  himself. 
He  had  also  been  obliged  to  lay  down  the  most  lucrative 


1595.  THE  NEW  GOVERNOR- GENERAL.  353 

4 

episcopate  in  Christendom,  that  of  Toledo,  the  revenues  of 
which  amounted  to  the  enormous  sum  of  three  hundred 
thousand  dollars  a  year.1  Of  this  annual  income,  however^ 
he  prudently  reserved  to  himself  fifty  thousand  dollars,  by 
contract  with  his  destined  successor. 

The  cardinal  reached  the  Netherlands  before  the  end  of 
January.  He  brought  with  him  three  thousand  29  Jan. 
Spanish  infantry,  and  some  companies  of  cavalry,  1596, 
wdiile  his  personal  baggage  was  transported  on  three  hundred 
and  fifty  mules.2  Of  course  there  was  a  triumphal  procession 
when,  on  the  lltli  February,  the  new  satrap  entered  u  Feb. 
the  obedient  Netherlands,  and  there  was  the  usual  1596* 
amount  of  bell-ringing,  cannon-firing,  trumpet-blowing,  with 
torch-light  processions,  blazing  tar-barrels,  and  bedizened 
platforms,  where  Allegory,  in  an  advanced  state  of  lunacy, 
performed  its  wonderful  antics.  It  was  scarcely  possible  for 
human  creatures  to  bestow  more  adulation,  or  to  abase  them¬ 
selves  more  thoroughly,  than  the  honest  citizens  of  Brussels 
had  so  recently  done  in  honour  of  the  gentle,  gouty  Ernest, 
but  they  did  their  best.  That  mythological  conqueror  and 
demigod  had  sunk  into  an  unhonoured  grave,  despite  the  loud 
hosannahs  sung  to  him  on  his  arrival  in  Belgica,  and  the  same 
nobles,  pedants,  and  burghers  were  now  ready  and  happy  to 
grovel  at  the  feet  of  Albert.  But  as  it  proved  as  impossible  to 
surpass  the  glories  of  the  holiday  which  had  been  culled  out 
for  his  brother,  so  it  would  be  superfluous  now  to  recall  the 
pageant  which  thus  again  delighted  the  capital. 

But  there  was  one  personage  who  graced  this  joyous 
entrance  whose  presence  excited  perhaps  more  interest  than 
did  that  of  the  archduke  himself.  The  procession  was  headed 
by  three  grandees  riding  abreast.  There  was  the  Duke,  of 
Aumale,  pensionary  of  Philip,  and  one  of  the  last  of  the 
Leaguers,  who  had  just  been  condemned  to  death  and  executed 
in  effigy  at  Paris,  as  a  traitor  to  his  king  and  country  ;  there 
was  the  Prince  of  Chimay,  now  since  the  recent  death  of  his 

1  Soranzo,  Relazione  apud  Barozzi  et  Bercliet.  Le  Relazioni  degli  Am- 
basciatori  Veneti,  i.  45.  2  Bor,  IV.  167. 

vol.  hi. — 2  A 


2^  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXII. 

father  at  Venice  become  Duke  'of  Arschot ;  and  between  the 
two  rode  •  a  gentleman  forty- two  years  of  age,  whose  grave, 
melancholy  features— although  wearing  a  painful  expression 
of  habitual  restraint  and  distrust— suggested,  more  than  did 
those  of  the  rest  of  his  family,  the  physiognomy  of  William 
the  Silent3  to  all  who  remembered  that  illustrious  rebel. 

It  was  the  eldest  son  of  the  great  founder  of  the  Dutch 
republic.  Philip  William,  Prince  of  Orange,  had  at  last, 
after  twenty-eight  years  of  captivity  in  Spain,  returned  to  the 
Netherlands,  whence  he  had  been  kidnapped  while  a  school¬ 
boy  at  Louvain,  by  order  of  the  Duke  of  Alva. .  Earely  has 
there  been  a  .more  dreary  fate,  a  more  broken  existence  than 
his.  His  almost  life-long  confinement,  not  close  nor  cruel,  but 
strict  and  inexorable,  together  with  the  devilish  arts  of  the 
Jesuits,  had  produced  nearly  as  blighting  an  effect  upon  his 
moral  nature  as  a  closer  dungeon  might  have  done  on  his 
physical  constitution.  Although  under  perpetual  arrest  in 
Madrid,  he  had  been  allowed  to  ride  and  to  hunt,  to  go  to 
mass,  and  to  enjoy  many  of  the  pleasures  of  youth.  But  lie 
had  been  always  a  prisoner,  and  his  soul  a  hopeless  captive 
—could  no  longer  be  liberated  now  that  the  tyrant,  in  order 
to  .further  his  own  secret  purposes,  had  at  last  released  his 
body  from  gaol.  Although  the  eldest-born  of  his  father,  and 
the  inheritor  of  the  great  estates  of  Orange  and  of  Buren,  he 
was  no  longer  a  Nassau  except  in  name.  The  change  wrought 
by  the  pressure  of  the  Spanish  atmosphere  was  complete.  All 
that  was  left  of  his  youthful  self  was  a  passionate  reverence 
for  his  father’s  .memory,  strangely  combined  with  a  total 
indifference  to  all  that  his  father  held  dear,  all  for  which  his 
father  had  laboured  his  whole  lifetime,  and  for  which  his 
heart’s  blood  had  been  shed.  On  being  at  last  set  free  from 
bondage  he  had  been  taken  to  the  Escorial,  and  permitted  to 
kiss  the  hand  of  the  king-that  hand  still  reeking  with  his 
father’s  murder.  He  had  been  well  received  by  the  Infante 
and  the  Infanta,  and  by  the  empress-mother,  daughter, of 
Charles  V.,  while  the  artistic  treasures  of  the  palace  and 

1  Fruin,  207,  note. 


1596. 


PHILIP  WILLIAM,  PRINCE  OF  ORANGE. 


355 


cloister  were  benignantly  pointed  out  to  him.  It  was  also 
signified  to  him  that  he  was  to  receive  the  order  of  the 
Golden  Fleece,  and  to  enter  into  possession  of  his  paternal 
and  maternal  estates.  And  Philip  William  had  accepted 
these  conditions  as  if  a  horn  loyal  subject  of  his  Most  Catholic 
Majesty. 

Could  better  proof  be  wanting  that  in  that  age  religion  was 
the  only  fatherland,  and  that  a  true  papist  could  sustain  no 
injury  at  the  hands  of  his  Most  Catholic  Majesty  ?  If  to  be 
kidnapped  in  boyhood,  to  be  imprisoned  during  a  whole 
generation  of  mankind,  to  be  deprived  of  vast  estates,  and 
to  be  made  orphan  by  the  foulest  of  assassinations,  could 
not  engender  resentment  against  the  royal  perpetrator  of 
these  crimes  in  the  bosom  of  his  victim,  was  it  strange  that 
Philip  should  deem  himself  something  far  more  than  man, 
and  should  placidly  accept  the  worship  rendered  to  him 
by  inferior  beings,  as  to  the  holy  impersonation  of  Almighty 
Wrath  ? 

Yet  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  prince  had  a  sincere  respect 
for  his  father,  and  had  bitterly  sorrowed  at  his  death.  When 
a  Spanish  officer,  playing  chess  with  him  in  prison,  had 
ventured  to  .  speak  lightly  of  that  father,  Philip  William  had 
seized  him  bodily,  thrown  him  from  the  window,  and  thus 
killed  him.  on  the  spot.4  And  when  on  his  arrival  in  Brussels 
it  was  suggested  to  him  by  President  Richardot  that  it  was 
the  king’s  intention  to  reinstate  him  in  the  possession  of  his 
estates,  but  that  a  rent-charge  of  eighteen  thousand  florins  a 
year  was  still  to  be  paid  from  them  to  the  heirs  of  Balthazar 
Gerard,  his  father’s  assassin,  he  flamed  into  a  violent  rage, 
drew  his  poniard,  and  would  have  stabbed  the  president,  liad 
not  the  bystanders  forcibly  inteferred.5  In  consequence  of 
this  refusal — called  magnanimous  by  contemporary  writers — 
to  accept  his  property  under  such  conditions,  the  estates  were 
detained  from  him  for  a  considerable  time  longer.  During 
the  period  of  his  captivity  he  had  been  allowed  an  income  of 

4  De  la  Pise  in  voce.  The  anecdote  has  already  been  mentioned  in  the 
‘  Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic.’  5  Ibid. 


356 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXII. 

fifteen  thousand  livres  ;  but  after  his  restoration  his  house¬ 
hold,  gentlemen,  and  servants  alone  cost  him  eighty  thousand 
livres  annually.  It  was  supposed  that  the  name  of  Orange- 
Nassau  might  now  he  of  service  to  the  king’s  designs  in  the 
Netherlands.  Philip  William  had  come  ky  way  of  Rome, 
where  he  had  been  allowed  to  kiss  the  pope’s  feet  and  had 
received  many  demonstrations  of  favour,  and  it  was  fondly 
thought  that  he  would  now  prove  an  instrument  with  which 
kinf  and  pontiff  might  pipe  back  the  rebellious  republic  to 
its  ancient  allegiance.  But  the  Dutchmen  and  Frisians  were 
deaf.  They  had  tasted  liberty  too  long,  they  had  dealt  too 
many  hard  blows  on  the  head  of  regal  and  sacerdotal  des¬ 
potism,  to  be  deceived  by  coarse  artifices.  Especially  the 
king  thought  that  something  might  be  done  with  Count 
Hohenlo.  That  turbulent  personage  having  recently  married 
the  full  sister  of  Philip  William,  and  being  already  at  vari¬ 
ance  with  Count  Maurice,  both  for  military  and  political 
causes,  and  on  account  of  family  and  pecuniary  disputes, 
might’  it  was  thought,  be  purchased  by  the  king,  and  perhaps 
a  few  towns  and  castles  in  the  united  Netherlands  might  be 
thrown  into  the  bargain.  In  that  huckstering  age,  when  the 
loftiest  and  most  valiant  nobles  of  Europe  were  the  most 
Shameless  sellers  of  themselves,  the  most  cynical  mendicants 
for  alms  and  the  most  infinite  absorbers  of  bribes  in  exchange 
for  their  temporary  fealty  ;  when  Mayenne,  Mercceur,  Guise, 
Villars,  Egmont,  and  innumerable  other  possessors  of  ancient 
and  illustrious  names  alternately  and  even  simultaneously 
drew  pensions  from  both  sides  in  the  great  European  conflict, 
it  was  not  wonderful  that  Philip  should  think  that  the  bois¬ 
terous  Hohenlo  might  be  bought  as  well  as  another, 
prudent  king,  however,  gave  his  usual  order  that  nothing  was 
to  be  paid  beforehand,  but  that  the  service  was  to  be  ren¬ 
dered  first,  and  the  price  received  afterwards.6 

The  cardinal  applied  himself  to  the  task  on  his  first  arrival, 


6  “Que  en  todas  platicas  seme- 
jantes  ha  de  preceder  el  scrvicio  a  la 
recompensa  que  se  ofreciere  a  trueco 


dppi  ’’—Philip  to  Archduke  Albert 
13  Jan.  1596.  (Arch,  de  Sim.  MS.) 


1596.  NOTICE  OF  THE  CARDINAL-ARCHDUKE.  357 

« 

but  was  soon  obliged  to  report  that  he  could  make  but 
little  progress  in  the  negotiation.7 8 

The  king  thought,  too,  that  Heraugiere,  who  had  com¬ 
manded  the  memorable  expedition  against  Breda,  and  who 
was  now  governor  of  that  stronghold,  might  be  purchased,  and 
he  accordingly  instructed  the  cardinal  to  make  use  of  the 
Prince  of  Orange  in  the  negotiations  to  be  made  for  that 
purpose.  The  cardinal,  in  effect,  received  an  offer  from 
Heraugiere  in  the  course  of  a  few  months  not  only  to  sur¬ 
render  Breda,  without  previous  recompense,  but  likewise  to 
place  Gertruydenberg,  the  governor  of  which  city  was  his 
relative,  in  the  king's  possession.  But  the  cardinal  was  afraid 
of  a  trick,  for  Heraugiere  was  known  to  be  as  artful  as  he 
was  brave,  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  Netherlander 
was  only  disposed  to  lay  an  ambush  for  the  governor-general.s 

And  thus  the  son  of  William  the  Silent  made  his  reappear¬ 
ance  in  the  streets  of  Brussels,  after  twenty-eight  years  of 
imprisonment,  riding  in  the  procession  of  the  new  viceroy. 
The  cardinal-archduke  came  next,  with  Fuentes  riding  at  his 
left  hand.  That  vigorous  soldier  and  politician  soon  after¬ 
wards  left  the  Netherlands  to  assume  the  government  of 
Milan. 

There  was  a  correspondence  between  the  Prince  of  Orange 
and  the  States-General,  in  which  the  republican  authorities, 
after  expressing  themselves  towards  him  with  great  propriety 
and  affectionate  respect,  gave  him  plainly  but  delicately  to 
understand  that  his  presence  at  that  time  in  the  United 
Provinces  would  neither  be  desirable,  nor,  without  their 
passports,  possible.9  They  were  quite  aware  of  the  uses  to 
which  the  king  was  hoping  to  turn  their  reverence  for  the 
memory  and  the  family  of  the  great  martyr,  and  were  deter¬ 
mined  to  foil  such  idle  projects  on  the  threshold. 

The  Archduke  Albert,  born  on  3rd  of  November,  1560, 
was  now  in  his  thirty-sixth  year.  A  small,  thin,  pale-faced 

7  Albert  to  Philip,  28  March,  1596.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 

8  Albert  to  Philip,  18  July,  1596.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 

9  Bor,  IV.  153,  154,  seqq. 


358 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXII. 


man,  with  fair  hair  and  heard,  commonplace  features,  and  the 
hereditary  underhanging  Burgundian  jaw  prominently  de¬ 
veloped,  he  was  not  without  a  certain  nobility  of  presence. 
His  manners  were  distant  to  haughtiness  and  grave  to 
solemnity.  He  spoke  very  little  and  very  slowly.  He 
had  resided  long  in  Spain,  where  he  had  been  a  favourite  with 
his  uncle— as  much  as  any  man  could  he  a  favourite  with 
Philip— and  he  had  carefully  formed  himself  on  that  royal 
model.  He  looked  upon  the  King  of  Spain  as  the  greatest, 
wisest,  and  best  of  created  beings,  as  the  most  illustrious 
specimen  of  kingcraft  ever  yet  vouchsafed  to  the  world. .  He 
did  his  best  to  look  sombre  and  Spanish,  to  turn  his  visage 
into  a  mask,  to  conceal  his  thoughts  and  emotions,  not  only 
by  the  expression  of  his  features  but  by  direct  misstatements 
'of  his  tongue,  and  in  all  things  to  present  to  the  obedient 
Flemings  as  elaborate  a  reproduction  of  his  great  prototype 
as  copy  can  ever  recall  inimitable  original.  Old  men  m  the 
Netherlands,  who  remembered  in  how  short  a  time  Philip 
had  succeeded,  by  the  baleful  effect  of  his  personal  presence, 
in  lighting  up  a  hatred  which  not  the  previous  twenty  years  of 
his  father’s  burnings,  hangings,  and  butchermgs  m  those 
provinces  had  been  able  to  excite,  and  which  forty  subsequent 
years  of  bloodshed  had  not  begun  to  allay,  might  well  shake 
their  heads  when  they  saw  this  new  representative  of  Spanish 
authority.  It  would  have  been  wiser — so  many  astute  poli¬ 
ticians  thought— for  Albert  to  take  the  Emperor  Charles  for 
his  model,  who  had  always  the  power  of  making  his  tyranny 
acceptable  to  the  Flemings,  through  the  adroitness  with  which 
he  seemed  to  be  entirely  a  Fleming  himself.1" 

But  Albert,  although  a  German,  valued  himself  on  appear¬ 
ing  like  a  Spaniard.  He  was  industrious,  regular  in  his 
habits,  moderate  in  eating  and  drinking,  fond  of  giving 
audiences  on  business.  He  spoke  German,  Spanish,  and 
Latin,  and  understood  French  and  Italian.  He  had  at  times 
been  a  student,  and,  especially,  had  some  knowledge  of 


10  Bentivoglio,  Relazione  delle  Provincie  ubbedienti  di  Fiandra.  Soranzo 
Relazione. 


1596. 


OFFICERS  OF  THE  NEW  GOVERNOR. 


359 


mathematics.  He  was  disposed  to  do  his  duty  so  far  as  a 
man  can  do  his  duty,  who  imagines  himself  so  entirely  lifted 
above  his  fellow  creatures  as  to  owe  no  obligation  except  to 
exact  their  obedience  and  to  personify  to  them  the  will  of 
the  Almighty.  To  Philip  and  the  Pope  he  was  ever  faithful. 
He  was  not  without  pretensions  to  military  talents,  but  his 
gravity,  slowness,  and  silence  made  him  fitter  to  shine  in  the 
cabinet  than  in  the  field.  Henry  IV.,  who  loved  his  jest, 
whether  at  his  own  expense  or  that  of  friend  or  foe,  was  wont 
to  observe  that  there  were  three  things  which  nobody  would 
ever  believe,  and  which  yet  were  very  true  ;  that  Queen 
Elizabeth  deserved  her  title  of  the  throned  vestal,  that  he 
was  himself  a  good  Catholic,  and  that  Cardinal  Albert  was  a 
good  general.  It  is  probable  that  the  assertions  vcre  all 

equally  accurate. 

The  new  governor  did  not  find  a  very  able  group  of 
generals  or  statesmen  assembled  about  him  to  assist  in  the 
difficult  task  which  he  had  undertaken.  There  were  plenty 
of  fine  gentlemen,  with  ancient  names  and  lofty  pretensions, 
but  the  working  men  in  field  or  council  had  mostly  dis¬ 
appeared.  Mondragon,  La  Motte,  Charles  Mansfeld,  Frank 
Verdugo  were  all  dead.  Fuentes  was  just  taking  his  de¬ 
parture  for  Italy.  Old  Peter  Ernest  was  a  cipher  ,  and  his 
son’s  place  was  filled  by  the  Marquis  of  Varambon,  as  prin¬ 
cipal  commander  in  active  military  operations.  Phis  was  a 
Purgundian  of  considerable  military  ability,  but  with  an 
inordinate  opinion  of  himself  and  of  his  family.  Accept  the 
fact  that  his  lineage  is  the  highest  possible,  and  that  he  has 
better  connections  than  those  of  anybody  else  in  the  whole 
world,  and  he  will  be  perfectly  contented,”  said  a  sharp, 
splenetic  Spaniard  in  the  cardinal’s  confidence.  “ ’Tis  a 
faithful  and  loyal  cavalier,  but  full  of  impertinences.”  11  The 
brother  of  Varambon,  Count  Varax,  had  succeeded  La  Motte 
as  general  of  artillery,  and  of  his  doings  there  was  a  tale  ere 

11  Relacion  de  los  Senores  de  titulo  y  otras^  personas  de  qualidad  que  liay 
en  estos  estados ; — diose  a  sn  AltA  en  Valenciennes,  2  Abril,  lo96.  (Arcli.  de 
Simancas  MS.) 


ogQ  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXII. 

long  to  be  told.  On  the  whole,  the  best  soldier  in  the  arch¬ 
duke's  service  for  the  moment  was  the  Frenchman  Savigny 
de  Rosne,  an  ancient  Leaguer,  and  a  passionate  hater  of  the 
Bearnese,  of  heretics,  and  of  F ranee  as  then  constituted.  He 
had  once  made  a  contract  with  Henry  by  which  he  bound 
himself  to  his  service  ;  but  after  occasioning  a  good  deal  of 
injury  by  his  deceitful  attitude,  he  had  accepted  a  large 
amount  of  Spanish  dollars,  and  had  then  thrown  off  the  mask 
and  proclaimed  himself  the  deadliest  foe  of  his  lawful  sove¬ 
reign.  u  He  was  foremost,"  said  Carlos  Coloma,  “  among 
those  who  were  successfully  angled  for  by  the  Commander 
Moreo  with  golden  hooks."  12  Although  prodigiously  fat,  this 
renegade  was  an  active  and  experienced  campaigner,  while 
his  personal  knowledge  of  his  own  country  made  his  assist¬ 
ance  of  much  value  to  those  who  were  attempting  its  de¬ 
struction. 

The  other  great  nobles,  who  were  pressing  themselves 
about  the  new  viceroy  with  enthusiastic  words  of  welcome, 
were  as  like  to  give  him  embarrassment  as  support.  All 
wanted  office,  emoluments,  distinctions,  nor  could  much  de¬ 
pendence  be  placed  on  the  ability  or  the  character  of  any  of 
them.  The  new  duke  of  Arschot  had  in  times  past,  as  prince 
of  Chimay,  fought  against  the  king,  and  had  even  imagined 
himself  a  Calvinist,  while  his  wife  was  still  a  dctci  mined 
heretic.  It  is  true  that  she  was  separated  from  her  husband. 
He  was  a  man  of  more  quickness  and  acuteness  than  his 
father  had  been,  but  if  possible  more  mischievous  both  to 
friend  and  foe;  being  subtle,  restless,  intriguing,  fickle, 
ambitious,  and  deceitful.  The  Prince  of  Oiange  was  con¬ 
sidered  a  man  of  very  ordinary  intelligence,  not  more  than 
half  witted,  according  to  Queen  Elizabeth, 3  and  it  was  pio- 
bable  that  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  his  life  would  ex¬ 
tinguish  any  influence  that  he  might  otherwise  have  attained 
with  either  party.  He  was  likely  to  affect  a  neutral  position, 

and,  in  times  of  civil  war,  to  be  neutral  is  to  be  nothing. 

« 

•  12  Coloma,  229.  Cal vaert’s  letter,  in  Deventer,  ii.  108. 

13  “  Ende  niet  half!  wys.”  Caron  to  States-Greneral,  in  Deventer,  n.  12 


1596. 


THE  COUNT  DE  LIGNY. 


361 


Arenberg,  unlike  the  great  general  on  the  Catholic  side 
who  had  made  the  name  illustrious  in  the  opening  scenes  of 
the  mighty  contest,  was  disposed  to  quiet  obscurity  so  far  as 
was  compatible  with  his  rank.  Having  inherited  neither 
fortune  nor  talent  with  his  ancient  name,  he  was  chiefly 
occupied  with  providing  for  the  wants  of  his  numerous  family. 

A  good  papist,  well-inclined  and  docile,  he  was  strongly  re¬ 
commended  for  the  post  of  admiral,  not  because  he  had  naval 
acquirements,  hut  because  he  had  a  great  many  childien. 
The  Marquis  of  Havre,  uncle  to  the  Duke  of  Arschot,  had 
played  in  his  time  many  prominent  parts  in  the  long  Nether- 
land  tragedy.  Although  older  than  he  was  when  Requesens 
and  Hon  John  of  Austria  had  been  governors,  he  was  not 
much  wiser,  being  to  the  full  as  vociferous,  as  false,  as  inso¬ 
lent,  as  self-seeking,  and  as  mischievous  as  in  his  youth. 
Alternately  making  appeals  to  popular  passions  in  his  capacity 
of  high-horn  demagogue,  or  seeking  crumbs  of  bounty  as 
the  supple  slave  of  his  sovereign,  he  was  not  more  likely  to 
acquire  the  confidence  of  the  cardinal  than  he  had  done  that 
of  his  predecessors. 

The  most  important  and  opulent  grandee  of  all  the 
provinces  was  the  Count  de  Eigne,  who  had  become  by 
marriage  or  inheritance  Prince  of  Espinay,  Seneschal  of 
Hainault,  and  Viscount  of  Ghent.  But  it  was  only  his 
enormous  estates  that  gave  him  consideration,  for  he  was  not 
thought  capable  of  either  good  or  bad  intentions.  He  had, 
however,  in  times  past,  succeeded  in  the  chief  object  of  his  . 
ambition,  which  was  to  keep  out  of  trouble,  and  to  preserve 
his  estates  from  confiscation.  His  wife,  who  governed  him, 
and  had  thus  far  guided  him  safely,  hoped  to  do* so  to  the 
end.  The  cardinal  was  informed  that  the  Golden  Fleece 
would  be  all-sufficient  to  keep  him  upon  the  right  track.15 

Of  the  Egmonts,  one  had  died  on  the  famous  field  of  Ivry, 
another  was  an  outlaw,  and  had  been  accused  of  participation 
in  plots  of  assassination  against  William  of  Orange ;  the 
third  was  now  about  the  archduke's  court,  and  was  supposed 

14  Relacion  de  los  Senores,  etc .,u~bi  sup.  15  Relacion  de  los  Senores,  etc. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXII. 


362 


to  be  as  dull  a  man  as  Ligne,  but  likely  to  be  serviceable  so 
long  as  be  could  keep  his  elder  brother  out  of  his  inheritance. 
Thus  devoted  to  Church  and  King  were  the  sons  ol  the  man 
whose  head  Philip  had  taken  off  on  a  senseless,  charge  of 
treason.  The  two  Counts  Van  den  Berg— Frederic  and  Her¬ 
man — sons  of  the  sister  of  William  the  Silent,  were,  on  the 
whole,  as  brave,  efficient,  and  trustworthy  servants  of  the 
kin°'  and  cardinal  as  were  to  be  found  in  the  obedient 

O  «  * 

provinces. 

The  new  governor  had  come  well  provided  with  funds, 
being  supplied  for  the  first  three-quarters  of  the  year  with 
a  monthly  allowance  of  1,100,000  florins.16  For  reasons 
soon  to  appear,  it  was  not  probable  that  the  Statcs-Gionoial 
would  be  able  very  soon  to  make  a  vigorous  campaign, 
and  it  was  thought  best  for  the  cardinal  .to  turn  his  immediate 

attention  to  France. 

The  negotiations  for  effecting  an  alliance  offensive  and 
defensive,  between  the  three  powers,  most  interested  m 
opposing  the  projects  of  Spain  for  universal  empiie,  weie  not 
yet  begun,  and  will  be  reserved  for  a  subsequent  chapter. 
Meantime  there  had  been  much  informal  discussion  and 
diplomatic  trifling  between  France  and  England  for  the 
purpose  of  bringing  about  a  sincere  co-operation  of  the  two 
crowns  against  the  Fifth  Monarchy  as  it  was  much  the 
fashion  to  denominate  Philip’s  proposed  dominion. 

Henry  had  suggested  at  different  times  to  Sir  Robert 
Sidney,  during  his  frequent  presence  in  France  as  special 
envoy  for  the  queen,  the  necessity  of  such  a  step,  but  had 
not  always  found  a  hearty  sympathy.  But  as  the  king  began 
to  cool  in  his  hatred  to  Spain,  alter  his  declaration  of  wai 
against  that  power,  it  seemed  desirable  to  Elizabeth  to  fan 
his  resentment  afresh,  and  to  revert  to  those  propositions 
which  had  been  so  coolly  received  when  made.  Sir  Harry 
Umton,  ambassador  from  her  Majesty,  was*  accordingly  pro¬ 
vided  with  especial  letters  on  the  subject  from  the  queen’s 
hand,  and  presented  them  early  in  the  year  at 

16  Reyd,  275. 


own 


1596.  PROPOSED  ANGLO-FRENCH  ALLIANCE.  363 

Coucy  (Feb.  13,  1596).  No  man  in  the  world  knew  better 
the  tone  to  adopt  in  his  communications  with  Elizabeth  than 
did  the  chivalrous  king.  No  man  knew  better  than  he  how 
impossible  it  was  to  invent  terms  of  adulation  too  gross  for 
her  to  accept  as  spontaneous  and  natural  effusions  of  the 
heart.  He  received  the  letters  from  the  hands  of  Sir  Henry, 
read  them  with  rapture,  heaved  a  deep  sigh,  and  exclaimed  : 
u  Ah  !  Mr.  Ambassador,  what  shall  I  say  to  you  P  This  letter 
of  the  queen,  my  sister,  is  full  of  sweetness  and  affection. 
I  see  that  she  loves  me,  while  that  I  love  her  is  not  to 
be  doubted.  Yet  your  commission  shows  me  the  contrary, 
and  this  proceeds  from  her  ministers.  How  else  can  these 
obliquities  stand  with  her  professions  of  love  ?  I  am  forced, 
as  a  king,  to  take  a  course  which,  as  Henry,  her  loving 
brother,  I  could  never  adopt.” 

They  then  walked  out  into  the  park,  and  the  king  fell  into 
frivolous  discourse,  on  purpose  to  keep  the  envoy  from 
the  important  subject  which  had  been  discussed  in  the 
cabinet.  Sir  Henry  brought  him  back  to  business,  and 
insisted  that  there  was  no  disagreement  between  her  Majesty 
and  her  counsellors,  all  being  anxious  to  do  what  she  wished. 
The  envoy,  who  shared  in  the  prevailing  suspicions  that 
Henry  was  about  to  make  a  truce  with  Spain, 'vehemently 
protested  against  such  a  step,  complaining  that  his  ministers, 
whose  minds  were  distempered  with  jealousy,  were  inducing 
him  to  sacrifice  her  friendship  to  a  false  and  hollow  reconcilia¬ 
tion  with  Spain.  Henry  protested  that  his  preference  would 
be  for  England's  amity,  but  regretted  that  the  English  delays 
were  so  great,  and  that  such  dangers  were  ever  impending 
over  his  head,  as  to  make  it  impossible  for  him,  as  a  king, 
to  follow  the  inclinations  of  his  heart. 

They  then  met  Madame  de  Monceaux,  the  beautiful 
Gabrielle,  who  was  invited  to  join  in  the  walk,  the  king 
saying  that  she  was  no  meddler  in  politics,  but  of  a  tractable 
spirit. 

This  remark,  in  Sir  Henry's  opinion,  was  just,  for,  said  he  to 
Burghley,  she  is  thought  incapable  of  affairs,  and  very  simple. 


I 


364  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXII. 

The  duchess  unmasked  very  graciously  as  the  ambassador 
was  presented  ;  hut,  said  the  splenetic  diplomatist,  “  I  took  no 
pleasure  in  it,  nor  hpid  it  any  grace  at  all.”  “  She  was 
attired  in  a  plain  satin  gown,”  he  continued,  “  with  a  velvet 
hood  to  keep  her  from  the  weather,  which  became  her  very 
ill.  In  my  opinion,  she  is  altered  very  much  for  the  worse, 
and  was  very  grossly  painted.”  The  three  walked  together 
discoursing  of  trifles,  much  to  the  annoyance  of  Umton. 
At  last,  a  shower  forced  the  lady  into  the  house,  and  the 
king  soon  afterwards,  took  the  ambassador  to  his  cabinet. 
“  He  asked  me  how  I  liked  his  mistress,”  wrote  Sir  Henry 
to  Burgliley,  “  and  I  answered  sparingly  in  her  praise,  and 
told  him  that  if  without  offence  I  might  speak  it,  I  had 
the  picture  of  a  far  more  excellent  mistress,  and  yet  did  her 
picture  come  far  from  the  perfection  of  her  beauty.” 

“  As  you  love  me,”  cried  the  king,  “  show  it  me,  if  you 
have  it  about  you  !” 

“  I  made  some  difficulty,”  continued  Sir  Henry,  “  yet  upon 
his  importunity  I  offered  it  to  his  view  very  secretly,  still 
holding  it  in  my  hand.  He  beheld  it  with  passion  and 
admiration,  saying  that  I  was  in  the  right.”  “  I  give  in,” 
said  the  king,  “  Je  me  rends.” 

Then,  protesting  that  he  had  never  seen  such  beauty 
all  his  life,  he  kissed  it  reverently  twice  or  thrice,  Sir  Henry 
still  holding  the  miniature  firmly  in  his  hand. 

The  king  then  insisted  upon  seizing  the  picture,  and  there 
was  a  charming  struggle  between  the  two,  ending  in  his 
Majesty’s  triumph.  He  then  told  Sir  Henry  that  he  might 
take  his  leave  of  the  portrait,  for  he  would  never  give  it  up 
again  for  any  treasure,  and  that  to  possess  the  favour  of  the 
original  he  would  forsake  all  the  world.  He  fell  into  many 
more  such  passionate  and  incoherent  expressions  of  rhapsody, 
as  of  one  suddenly  smitten  and  spell-bound  with  hapless  love, 
bitterly  reproaching  the  ambassador  for  never  having  brought 
him  any  answers  to  the  many  affectionate  letters  which  he 
had  written  to  the  queen,  whose  silence  had  made  him 
so  wretched.  Sir  Henry,  perhaps  somewhat  confounded  at 


1596.  KING  HENRY  AND  THE  ENGLISH  AMBASSADOR.  365 

being  beaten  at  liis  own  fantastic  game,  answered  as  well  as 
lie  could,  “but  I  found/’  said  be,  “that  tbe  dumb  picture  did 
draw  on  more  speech  and  affection  from  bim  than  all  my  best 
arguments  and  eloquence.  This  was  tbe  effect  of  our  con¬ 
ference,  and,  if  infiniteness  of  vows  and  outward  professions 
be  a  strong  argument  of  inward  affection,  there  is  good  likeli¬ 
hood  of  tbe  king’s  continuance  of  amity  with  her  Majesty ; 
only  I  fear  lest  bis  necessities  may  inconsiderately  draw  bim 
into  some  hazardous  treaty  with  Spain,  which  I  hope  con¬ 
fidently  it  is  yet  in  the  power  of  her  Majesty  to  prevent.”17 

The  king,  while  performing  these  apish  tricks  about  the 
picture  of  a  lady  with  beady  black  eyes,  a  hooked  nose, 
black  teeth,  and  a  red  wig,  who  was  now  in  the  sixty-fourth 
year  of  her  age,  knew  very  well  that  the  whole  scene  would 
be  at  once  repeated  to  the  fair  object  of  his  passion  by  her 
faithful  envoy  ;  but  what  must  have  been  the  opinion  enter¬ 
tained  of  Elizabeth  by  contemporary  sovereigns  and  states¬ 
men  when  such  fantastic  folly  could  be  rehearsed  and  related 
every  day  in  the  year ! 

And  the  king  kn^w,  after  all,  and  was  destined  very  soon 
to  acquire  proof  of  it  which  there  was  no  gainsaying,  that 
the  beautiful  Elizabeth  had  exactly  as  much  affection  for  him 
as  he  had  for  her,  and  was  as  capable  of  sacrificing  his 
interests  for  her  own,  or  of  taking  advantage  of  his  direct 
necessities  as  cynically  and  as  remorselessly,  as  the  King 
of  Spain,  or  the  Duke  of  Mayenne,  or  the  Pope  had  ‘ever 

done. 

Henry  had  made  considerable  progress  in  re-establishing 
his  authority  over  a  large  portion  of  the  howling  wilderness 
to  which  forty  years  of  civil  war  had  reduced  his  hereditary 
kingdom.  There  was  still  great  danger,  however,  at  its  two 
opposite  extremities.  Calais,  key  to  the  Norman  gate  of 
France,  was  feebly  held  ;  while  Marseilles,  seated  in  such 
dangerous  proximity  to  Spain  on  the  one  side,  and  to  the 
Republic  of  Genoa,  that  alert  vassal  of  Spain,,  on  the  other, 
was  still  in  the  possession  of  the  League.  A  concerted  action 

17  Sir  Henry  Umton  to  her  Majesty.  Coucy,  3  Feb.  1595-6. 


366 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXII. 


was  undertaken  by  means  of  John  Andrew  Doria,  with  a 
Spanish  fleet  from  Genoa  on  the  outside  and  a  well-organised 
consjfiracy  from  within,  to  carry  the  city  bodily  over 'to  Philip. 
Had  it  succeeded,  this  great  Mediterranean  seaport  would 
have  become  as  much  a  Spanish  possession  as  Barcelona  or 
Naples,  and  infinite  might  have  been  the  damage  to  Henry’s 
future  prospects  in  consequence.  But  there  was  a  man  in 
Marseilles,  Petrus  Libertas  by  name,  whose  ancestors  had 
gained  this  wholesome  family  appellation  by  a  successful 
effort  once  made  by  them  to  rescue  the  little  town  of  Calvi, 
in  Corsica,  from  the  tyranny  of  Genoa.  Peter  Liberty  needed 
no  prompting  to  vindicate,  on  a  fitting  occasion,  his  right  to 
his  patronymic.  In  conjunction  with  men  in  Marseilles  who 
hated  oppression,  whether  of  kings,  priests,  or  renegade 
republics,  as  much  as  he  did,  and  with  a  secret  and  well- 
arranged  understanding  with  the  Duke  of  Guise,  who  was 
burning  with  ambition  to  render  a  signal  benefit  to  the  cause 
which  he  had  just  espoused,  this  bold  tribune  of  the  people 
succeeded  in  stirring  the  population  to  mutiny  at  exactly  the 
17  Feb.  right  moment,  and  in  opening  the  gates  of  Mar- 
1596.  seilles  to  the  Duke  of  Guise  and  his  forces  before  it 
was  possible  for  the  Leaguers  to  admit  the  fleet  of  Doria  into 
its  harbour.  Thus  was  the  capital  of  Mediterranean  Prance 
lost  and  won.18  Guise  gained  great  favour  in  Henry’s  eyes, 
and  with  reason  ;  for  the  son  of  the  great  Balafre,  ‘who  was 
himself  the  League,  had  now  given  the  League  the  stroke  of 
mercy.  Peter  Liberty  became  consul  of  Marseilles,  and 
received  a  patent  of  nobility. .  It  was  difficult,  however,  for 
any  diploma  to  confer  anything  more  noble  upon  him  than 
the  name  which  he  had  inherited,  and  to  which  he  had  so 
well  established  his  right. 

But  while  Henry’s  cause  had  thus  been  so  well  served 
in  the  south,  there  was  danger  impending  in  the  north.  The 
king  had  been  besieging,  since  autumn,  the  town  of  La 
Fere,  an  important  military  and  strategic  position,  which  had 
been  Farnese’s  basis  of  operations  during  his  memorable 

18  De  Them,  xii.  613,  seqq.  1.  116.  Bor,  IV.  177-179. 


1596. 


ATTACK  ON  CALAIS. 


367 


campaigns  in  France,  and  which  had  ever  since  remained  in 
.the  hands  of  the  League. 

The  cardinal  had  taken  the  field  with  an  army  of  fifteen 
thousand  foot  and  three  thousand  horse,  assembled  at  Valen¬ 
ciennes,  and  after  hesitating  some  time  whether  or  not  he 
should  attempt  to  relieve  La  Fere,  he  decided  instead  on 
a  diversion.  In  the  second  week  of  April,  De  Eosne  vas 
detached  at  the  head  of  four  thousand  men,  and  suddenly 
appeared  before  Calais.19  The  city  had  been  long  governed 
by  De  Gordan,  hut  this  wary  and  experienced  commander 
had  unfortunately  been  for  two  years  dead.  Still  more  un¬ 
fortunately,  it  had  been  in  his  power  to  bequeath,  not  only 
his  fortune,  which  was  very  large,  but  the  government  of 
Calais,  considered  the  most  valuable  command  in  France, 
to  his  nephew,  De  Vidosan.  He  had,  however,  not  be¬ 
queathed  to  him  his  administrative  and  military  genius. 

The  fortress  called  the  Bisban,  or  Bysbank,  which  entirely 
governed  the  harbour,  and  the  possession  of  which  made 
Calais  nearly  impregnable,  as  inexhaustible  supplies  could 
thus  be  poured  into  it  by  sea,  had  fallen  into  comparative 
decay.  De  Gordan  had  been  occupied  in  strengthening  the 
work,  but  since  his  death  the  nephew  had  entirely  neglected 
the  task.  On  the  ^nd  side,  the  bridge  of  Hivelet  was  the  key 
to  the  place.  The  faubourg  was  held  by  two  Dutch  companies, 
under  Captains  Le  Gros .  and  Dominique,  who  undertook  to 
prevent  the  entrance  of  the  archduke’s  forces.  Vidosan,  how¬ 
ever,  ordered  these  faithful  auxiliaries  into  the  citadel 

De  Eosne,  acting  with  great  promptness,  seized  both  the 
bridge  of  Nivelet  and  the  fort  of  Eysbank  by  a  sudden  and 
well-concerted  movement.  This  having  been  accomplished, 
the  city  was  in  his  power,  and,  after  sustaining  a  brief 
cannonade,  it  surrendered.  Vidosan,  with  his  garrison,  how¬ 
ever,  retired  into  the  citadel,  anct  it  w  as  agiced  17  April, 
between  himself  and  De  Eosne  that  unless  succour  I0J6. 
should  be  received  from  the  French  king  before  the  expira¬ 
tion  of  six  days,  the  citadel  should  also  be  evacuated. 

19  De  Thou,  xii.  631. 


368  the  united  Netherlands.  Chap,  xxxii. 

Meantime  Henry,  who  was  at  Boulogne,  much  disgusted  at 
this  unexpected  disaster,  had  sent  couriers  to  the  Netherlands,, 
demanding  assistance  of  the  States-General  and  of  the  stad- 
holder.  Maurice  had  speedily  responded  to  the  appeal. 
Proceeding  himself  to  Zeeland,  he  had  shipped  fifteen  com¬ 
panies  of  picked  troops  from  Middelhurg,  together  with 
a  flotilla  laden  with  munitions  and  provisions  enough  to 
withstand  a  siege  of  several  weeks.  When  the  arrangements 
were  completed,  he  went  himself  on  hoard  of  a  ship  of  war 
to  take  command  of  the  expedition  in  person.20  On  the  17th 
of  April  he  arrived  with  his  succours  off  the  harbour  of 
Calais,  and  found  to  his  infinite  disappointment  that  the 
Byshank  fort  was  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy.21  As  not  a 
vessel  could  pass  the  bar  without  almost  touching  that 
fortress,  the  entrance  to  Calais  was  now  impossible.22  Had 
the  incompetent  Yidosan  heeded  the  advice  of  his  brave 
Dutch  officers,  the  place  might  still  have  been  saved,  for 
it  had  surrendered  in  a  panic  on  the  very  day  when  the  fleet 
of  Maurice  arrived  off  the  port. 

Henry  had  lost  no  time  in  sending,  also,  to  his  English 
allies  for  succour.  The  possession  of  Calais  by  the  Spaniards 
might  well  seem  alarming  to  Elizabeth,  who  could  not  well 
forget  that  up  to  the  time  of  her  sister  this  important 
position  had  been  for  two  centuries  an  English  stronghold. 
The  defeat  of  the  Spanish  husband  of  an  English  queen  had 
torn  from  England  the  last  trophies  of  the  Black  Prince,  and 
now  the  prize  had  again  fallen  into  the  hands  of  Spain  ;  but 
of  Spain  no  longer  in  alliance,  but  at  war,  with  England. 
Obviously  it  was  most  dangerous  to  the  interests  and  to  the 
safety  of  the  English  realm,  that  this  threatening  position,  so 
near  the  gates  of  London,  should  be  in  the  hands  of  the  most 
powerful  potentate  in  the  world  and  the  dire  enemy  of 
England.  In  response  to  Henry's  appeal,  the  Earl  of  Essex 
was  despatched  with  a  force  of  six  thousand  men — raised 
by  express  command  of  the  queen  on  Sunday  when  the 
people  were  all  at  church — to  Dover,  where  shipping  was 


20  Bor,  IV.  188. 


21  Ibid. 


22  Ibid. 


1596.  PROPOSAL  OF  QUEEN  ELIZABETH.  359 

in  readiness  to  transport  the  troops  at  once  across  the 
Channel.  At  the  same  time,  the  politic  queen  and  some  of 
her  counsellors  thought  the  opening  a  good  one  to  profit 
by  the  calamity  of  their  dear  ally.  Certainly  it  was  desirable 
to  prevent  Calais  from  falling  into  the  grasp  of  Philip.  But 
it  was  perhaps  equally  desirable,  now  that  the  place  without 
the  assistance  of  Elizabeth  could  no  longer  he  preserved  by 
Henry,  that  Elizabeth,  and  not  Henry,  should  henceforth  he 
its  possessor.  To  make  this  proposition  as  clear  to  the 
French  king  as  it  seemed  to  the  English  queen,  Sir  Robert 
Sidney  was  despatched  in  all  haste  to  Boulogne,  even  while 
the  guns  of  He  Rosne  were  pointed  at  Calais  citadel,  and 
while  Maurice's  fleet,  baffled  by  the  cowardly  surrender  of  the 
Risban,  was  on  its  retreat  from  the  harbour. 

At  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  21st  of  April,  Sidney 
landed  at  Boulogne.  Henry,  who  had  been  in-  21  April 
tensely  impatient  to  hear  from  England,  and  who  1596. 
suspected  that  the  delay  was  boding  no  good  to  his  cause, 
went  down  to  the  strand  to  meet  the  envoy,  with  whom 
then  and  there  he  engaged  instantly  in  the  most  animated 
discourse. 

As  there  was  little  time  to  he  lost,  and  as  Sidney  on 
getting  out  of  the  vessel  found  himself  thus  confronted  with 
the  soldier-king  in  person,  he  at  once  made  the  demand  which 
he  had  been  sent  across  the  Channel  to  make.  He  requested 
the  king  to  deliver  up  the  town  and  citadel  of  Calais  to  the 
Queen  of  England  as  soon  as,  with  her  assistance,  he  should 
succeed  in  recovering  the  place.  He  assigned  as  her  Majesty's 
reasons  for  this  peremptory  summons  that  she  would  on  no 
other  terms  find  it  in  her  power  to  furnish  the  required  succour. 
Her  subjects,  she  said,  would  never  consent  to  it  except  on 
these  conditions.  It  was  perhaps  not  very  common  with  the 
queen  to  exhibit  so  much  deference  to  the  popular  will,  hut  on 
this  occasion  the  supposed  inclinations  of  the  nation  furnished 
her  with  .an  excellent  pretext  for  carrying  out  her  own. 
Sidney  urged  moreover  that  her  Majesty  felt  certain  of  being- 
obliged — in  case  she  did  not  take  Calais  into  her  own  safe 

vol.  hi. — 2  B 


370 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XNNII. 


keeping  and  protection— to  come  to  the  rescue  again  within 
four  or  six  months  to  prevent  it  once  more  from  being 

besieged,  conquered,  and  sacked  by  the  enemy. 

The  king  bad  feafed  some  sucb  proposition  as  tins,  ant 
had  intimated  as  much  to  the  States’  envoy,  Calvaert,  who  had 
walked  with  him  down  to  the  strand,  and  had  left  him  when 
the  conference  began.  Henry  was  not  easily  thrown  from 
his  equanimity  nor  wont  to  exhibit  passion  on  any  occasion, 

'  least  of  all  in  his  discussions  with  the  ambassadors  of  England, 
but  the  cool  and  insolent  egotism  of  this  communication  w as 

too  much  for  him. 

He  could  never  have  believed,  he  said  in  reply,  that  after 
the  repeated  assurances  of  her  Majesty's  affection  foi  him 
which  he  had  received  from  the  late  Sir  Henry  Umton 23  in 
their  recent  negotiations,  her  Majesty  would  now  so  dis¬ 
courteously  seek  to  make  her  profit  out  of  his  misery.  He 
had  come  to  Boulogne,  he  continued,  on  the  pledge  given 
by  the  Earl  of  Essex  to  assist  him  with  seven  or  eight  thou¬ 
sand  men  in  the  recovery  of  Calais.  If  this  after  all  should 
fail  him— although  his  own  reputation  would  be  more  in¬ 
jured  by  the  capture  of  the  place  thus  before  his  eyes  than  if 
it  had  happened  in  his  absence — lie  would  rather  a  hundred 
times  endure  the  loss  of  the  place  than  have  it  succoured 
with  such  injurious  and  dishonourable  conditions.  After  all, 
he  said,  the  loss  of  Calais  was  substantially  of  more  import 
ance  to  the  queen  than  to  himself.  To  him  the  chief  detri¬ 
ment  would  be  in  the  breaking  up  of  his  easy  and  regular 
communications  with  his  neighbours  through  this  position, 
and  especially  with  her  Majesty.  But  as  her  affection  foi  him 
was  now  proved  to  be  so  slender  as  to  allow  her  to  seek  a  pr ofi t 
from  his  misfortune  and  dishonour,  it  would  be  better  for  him 
to  dispense  with  her  friendship  altogether  and  to  strengthen  his 
connections  with  truer  and  more  honourable  friends.  Should 
the  worst  come  to  the  worst,  he  doubted  not  that  he  should 
be  able,  being  what  he  was  and  much  more  than  ,  he  was  of 


23  Sir  Henry  Umton  had  died  in  France  soon  after  the  interview  with  Henry 
IV.  mentioned  on  a  previous  page  of  this  volume.  Meteren,  o7_. 


1596. 


INDIGNATION  OF  HENRY. 


371 


old,  to  make  a  satisfactory  arrangement  with  the  King  of 
Spain.  He  was  ready  to  save  Calais  at  the  peril  of  his 
life,  to  conquer  it  in  person,  arid  not  by  the  hands  of  any  of 
his  lieutenants  ;  but  having  done  so,  he  was  not  willing — at  so 
great  a  loss  of  reputation  without  and  at  so  much  peril 
within — to  deliver  it  to  her  Majesty  or  to  any  one  else.  He 
would  far  rather  see  it  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  Spaniards. 

Thus  warmly  and  frankly  did  Henry  denounce  the  unhand¬ 
some  proposition  made  in  the  name  of  the  queen,  while, 
during  his  vehement  expostulations,  Sidney  grew  red  with 
shame,  and  did  not  venture  to  look  the  king  for  one  moment 
in  the  face.24  He  then  sought  to  mitigate  the  effect  of  his 
demand  by  intimating,  with  much  embarrassment  of  de¬ 
meanour,  that  perhaps  her  Majesty  would  be  satisfied  with 
the  possession  of  Calais  for  her  own  life-time,  and — as  this 
was  at  once  plumply  refused — by  the  suggestion  of  a  pledge 
of  it  for  the  term  of  one  year.  But  the  king  only  grew  the 
more  indignant  as  the  bargaining  became  more  paltry,  and 
he  continued  to  heap  bitter  reproaches  upon  the  queen,  who, 
without  having  any  children  or  known  inheritor  of  her  pos¬ 
sessions,  should  nevertheless  be  so  desirous  of  compassing 
his  eternal  disgrace  and  of  exciting  the  discontent  of  his  sub¬ 
jects  for  the  sake  of  an  evanescent  gain  for  herself.  At  such 
a  price,  he  avowed,  he  had  no  wish  to  purchase  her  Majesty's 
friendship. 

After  this  explosion  the  conference  became  more  amicable. 
The  English  envoy  assured  the  king  that  there  could  be,  at 
all  events,  no  doubt  of  the  arrival  of 'Essex  with  eight  thou¬ 
sand  men  on  the  following  Thursday  to  assist  in  the  relief  of 
the  citadel ;  notwithstanding  the  answer  which  he  had 
received  to  the  demand  of  her  Majesty. 

He  furthermore  expressed  the  strong  desire  which  he  felt 
that  the  king  might  be  induced  to  make  a  personal  visit  to 
the  queen  at  Hover,  whither  she  would  gladly  come  to  receive 


24  “  Deur  dewelke  S.  M.  den  voors. 
Ambassadeur  soo  scliaemroot  maekte, 
dat  by  (soo  S.  Mf  my  gkeseyt  keeft) 


S.  M.  niet  in’t  aensickt  dorste  te  sien,” 
&c.  &c.  Calvaert’s  Despatch  in  De¬ 
venter,  ii.  166. 


372 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXII. 


him,  so  soon  as  Calais  should  have  been  saved.  To  this  the 
king  replied  with  gallantry,  that  it  was  one  of  the  things  in 
the  world  that  he  had  most  at  heart.  The  envoy  rejoined 
that  her  Majesty  would  consider  such  a  visit  a  special  honour 
and  favour.  She  had  said  that  she  could  leave  this  world 
more  cheerfully,  when  God  should  ordain,  after  she  had 
enjoyed  two  hours'  conversation  with  his  Majesty. 

Sidney  on  taking  his  departure  repeated  the  assurance  that 
the  troops  under  Essex  would  arrive  before  Calais  by  Thurs¬ 
day,  and  that  they  were  fast  marching  to  the  English  coast ; 
forgetting,  apparently,  that,  at  the  beginning  of  the  inter- 
view,  he  had  stated,  according  to  the  queer's  instructions, 
that  the  troops  had  been  forbidden  to  march  until  a  favoui- 
able  answer  had  been  returned  by  the  king  to  her  pic- 
posal. 

Henry  then  retired  to  his  headquarters  for  the  purpose 
of  drawing  up  information  for  his  minister  in  England,  He 
Sancy,  who  had  not  yet  been  received  by  the  queen,  and 
who  had  been  kept  in  complete  ignorance  of  this  mission  of 
Sidney  and  of  its  purport. 

While  the  king  was  thus  occupied,  the  English  envoy  was 
left  in  the  company  of  Calvaert,  who  endeavoured,  without 
much  success,  to  obtain  from  him  the  result  of  the  conference 
which  had  just  taken  place.  Sidney  was  not  to  be  pumped 
by  the  Dutch  diplomatist,  adroit  as  he  unquestionably  was, 
but,  so  soon  as  the  queen's  ambassador  was  fairly  afloat 
again  on  his  homeward  track — which  was  the  case  within 
three  hours  after  his  arrival  at  Boulogne — Calvaert  received 
from  the  king  a  minute  account  of  the  whole  conversation/5 

Henry  expressed  unbounded  gratitude  to  the  States- 
General  of  the  republic  for  their  prompt  and  liberal  assist¬ 
ance,  and  he  eagerly  contrasted  the  conduct  of  Prince 
Maurice— sailing  forth  in  person  so  chivalrously  to  his  rescue 

_ with  the  sharp  bargainings  and  shortcomings  of  the  queen. 

He  despatched  a  special  messenger  to  convey  his  thanks  to 

25  Calvaert ’s  Letter  of  22  April,  1596,  recounting  this  remarkable  interview, 
isgiven  at  length  in  Van  Deventer’s  valuable  publication,  ii.  105-110. 


1596. 


CALAIS  TAKEN  BY  STORM. 


373 


the  prince,  and  he  expressed  his  hope  to  Calvaert  that  the 
States  might  be  willing  that  their  troops  should  return  to 
the  besieged  place  under  the  command  of  Maurice,  whose 
presence  alone,  as  he  loudly  and  publicly  protested,  was 
worth  four  thousand  men. 

But  it  was  too  late.  The  six  days  were  rapidly  passing 
away.  The  governor  of  Boulogne,  Campagnolo,  succeeded, 
by  Henry’s  command,  in  bringing  a  small  reinforcement  of 
two  or  three  hundred  men  into  the  citadel  of  Calais  during 
the  night  of  the  22nd  of  April.  This  devoted  little  band 
made  their  way,  when  the  tide  was  low,  along  the  flats  which 
stretched  between  the  fort  of  Rysbank  and  the  sea.  Some¬ 
times  wading  up  to  the  neck  in  water,  sometimes  swimming 
for  their  lives,  and  during  a  greater  part  of  their  perilous 
march  clinging  so  close  to  the  hostile  fortress  as  almost  to 
touch  its  guns,  the  gallant  adventurers  succeeded  in  getting 
into  the  citadel  in  time  to  be  butchered  with  the  rest  of  the 
garrison  on  the  following  day.  For  so  soon  as  the  handful 
of  men  had  gained  admittance  to  the  gates — although  other¬ 
wise  the  aspect  of  affairs  was  (Elite  unchanged — the  rash  and 
weak  De  Vidosan  proclaimed  that  the  reinforcements  stipu¬ 
lated  in  his  conditional  capitulation  having  arrived,  he  , 
should  now  resume  hostilities.  Whereupon  lie  opened  fire 
upon  the  town,  and  a  sentry  was  killed.  De  Bosne,  furious 
at  what  he  considered  a  breach  of  faith,  directed  a  severe 
cannonade  against  the  not  very  formidable  walls  of  the  castle. 
During  the  artillery  engagement  which  ensued  the  Prince  of 
Orange,  who  had  accompanied  De  Bosne  to  the  siege,  had  a 
very  narrow  escape.  A  cannon-ball  from  the  town  took  off  the 
heads  of  two  Spaniards  standing  near  him,  bespattering  him 
with  their  blood  and  brains.  He  was  urged  to  retire,  but 
assured  those  about  him  that  he  came  of  too  good  a  house  to 
be  afraid.  His  courage  was  commendable,  but  it  seems  not 
to  have  occurred  to  him  that  the  place  for  his  father’s  son 
was  not  by  the  side  of  the  general  who  was  doing  the  work  of 
his  father’s  murderer.  While  his  brother  Maurice  with  a  fleet 
of  twenty  Dutch  war-ships  was  attempting  in  vain  to  rescue 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXII. 


374 


Calais  from  the  grasp  of  the  Spanish  king,  Philip  William  of 
Nassau  was  looking  on,  a  pleased  and  passive  spectator  of  the 
desperate  and  unsuccessful  efforts  at  defence.  The  assault 
was  then  ordered.26  The  first  storm  was  repulsed,  mainly  by 
the  Dutch  companies,  who  fought  in  the  breach  until  most 
of  their  numbers  were  killed  or  wounded,  their  captains 
Dominique  and  Le  Gros  having  both  fallen.  The  next  attack 
was  successful,  the  citadel  was  carried,  and  the  whole  garrison, 
with  exception  of  what  remained  of  the  Hollanders  and  Zee- 
landers,  put  to  the  sword.  De  Vidosan  himself  perished. 
Thus  Calais  was  once  more  a  Spanish  city,  and  was  re-annexed 
to  the  obedient  provinces  of  Flanders.  Of  five  thousand 
persons,  soldiers  and  citizens,  who  had  taken  refuge  in  the 
castle,  all  were  killed  or  reduced  to  captivity.27 

The  conversion  of  this  important  naval  position  into  a 
Spanish-Flemish  station  was  almost  as  disastrous  to  the 
republic  as  it  was  mortifying  to  F ranee  and  dangerous  to 
England.  The  neighbouring  Dunkirk  had  long  been  a  nest 
of  pirates,  whence  small,  fast-sailing  vessels  issued,  daily  and 
nightly,  to  prey  indiscriminately  upon  the  commerce  of  all 
nations.  These  corsairs  neither  gave  nor  took  quarter,  and 
.  were  in  the  habit,  after  they  had  plundered  their  prizes,  of 
setting  them  adrift,  with  the  sailors  nailed  to  the  deck  or 
chained  to  the  rigging  ;  while  the  officers  were  held  for 
ransom.  In  case  the  vessels  themselves  were  wanted,  the 
crews  were  indiscriminately  tossed  overboard  ;  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  buccaneers  rarely  hesitated  to  blow  up  their 
own  ships,  when  unable  to  escape  from  superior  force.  Cap¬ 
ture  was  followed  by  speedy  execution,  and  it  was  but 
recently  that  one  of  these  freebooters  having  been  brought 
into  Rotterdam,  the  whole  crew,  forty-four  in  number,  were 
hanged  on  the  day  of  their  arrival,  while  some  five  and  twenty 
merchant-captains  held  for  ransom  by  the  pirates  thus  ob¬ 
tained  their  liberty. 2S 


26  Meteren,  370,  De  la  Pise. 

27  Bor,  IV.  184-188.  De  Tliou,  xii. 
681-637.  Meteren,  369,  370.  Benti- 
voglio,  439,  440.  Coloma,  211-217. 


Albert  to  Philip,  24  April,  1596 
(Arch  de  Simancas  MS.) 

28  Bor,  IV.  50, 129.  Meteren.  Reyd. 


1596.  SCARCITY  OF  PROVISIONS— TAXATION.  375 

And  now  Calais  was  likely  to  become  a  second  and  more 
dangerous  sea-robbers'  cave  than  even  Dunkirk  bad  been. 

Notwithstanding  this  unlucky  beginning  of  the  campaign 
for  the  three  allies,  it  was  determined  to  proceed  with  a 
considerable  undertaking  which  had  been  arranged  between 
England  and  the  republic.  For  the  time,  therefore,  the 
importunate  demands  of  the  queen  for  repayments  by  the 
States  of  her  disbursements  during  the  past  ten  years  were 
suspended.  It  had,  indeed,  never  been  more  difficult  than  at 
that  moment  for  the  republic  to  furnish  extraordinary  sums  of 
money.  The  year  1595  had  not  been  prosperous.  Although 
the  general  advance  in  commerce,  manufactures,  and  in  every 
department  of  national  development  had  been  very  remark¬ 
able,  yet  there  had  recently  been,  for  exceptional  causes,  an 
apparent  falling  off ; 29  while,  on  the '  other  hand,  there  had 
been  a  bad  harvest  in  the  north  of  Europe.  In  Holland, 
where  no  grain  was  grown,  and  which  yet  was  the  granary  of 
the  world,  the  prices  were  trebled.  One  hundred  and  eight 
bushels  (a  last)  of  rye,  which  ordinarily  was  worth  fifty  florins, 
now  sold  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  florins,  and  other  objects 
of  consumption  were  equally  enhanced  in  value.30  On  the 
other  hand,  the  expenses  of  the  war  were  steadily  increasing, 
and  were  fixed  for  this  year  at  five  millions  of  florins.  The 
republic,  and  especially  the  States  of  Holland,  never  hesitated 
to  tax  heroically.  The  commonwealth  had  no  income  except 
that  which  the  several  provinces  chose  to  impose  upon  them¬ 
selves  in  order  to  fill  the  quota  assigned  to  them  by  the 
States-General ;  but  this  defect  in  their  political  organization 
was  not  sensibly  felt  so  long  as  the  enthusiasm  for  the  war 
continued  in  full  force.  The  people  of  the  Netherlands  knew 
full  well  that  there  was  no  liberty  for  them  without  fighting,  no 
fighting  without  an  army,  no  army  without  wages,  and  no  wages 
without  taxation  ;  and  although  by  the  end  of  the  century  the 
imposts  had  become  so  high  that,  in  the  language  of  that  keen 
observer,  Cardinal  Bentivoglio,  nuncio  at  Brussels,  they  could 
scarcely  be  imagined  higher,  yet,  according  to  the  same 

29  Revel,  300.  30  Bor,  IV.  152. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap  XXXII. 


376 


authority,  they  were  laid  unflinchingly  and  paid  by  the  people 
without  a  murmur.31  During  this  year  and  the  next  the  States 
of  Holland,  whose  proportion  often  amounted  to  fifty  per  cent, 
of  the  whole  contribution  of  the  United  Provinces,  and  who 
ever  set  a  wholesome  example  in  taxation,  raised  the  duty  on 
imports  and  all  internal  taxes  by  one-eighth,  and  laid  a  fresh 
impost  on  such  articles  of  luxury  as  velvets  and  satins,  pleas 
and  processes.  Starch,  too,  became  a  source  of  considerable 
revenue.  With  the  fast-rising  prosperity  of  the  country  luxury 
had  risen  likewise,  and,  as  in  all  ages  and  countries  of  the  world 
of  which  there  is  record,  woman’s  dress  signalized  itself  by 
extravagant  and  very  often  tasteless  conceptions.  In  a  coun¬ 
try  where,  before  the  doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty  had 
been  broached  in  any  part  of  the  world  by  the  most  specula¬ 
tive  theorists,  very  vigorous  and  practical  examples  of 
democracy  had  been  afforded  to  Eui^pe  ;  in  a  country  where, 
ages  before  the  science  of  political  economy  had  been 
dreamed  of,  lessons  of  free  trade  on  the  largest  scale  had 
been  taught  to  mankind  by  republican  traders  instinctively 
breaking  in  many  directions  through  the  nets  by  which 
monarchs  and  oligarchs,  guilds  and  corporations,  had  hampered 
the  movements  of  commerce  ;  it  was  natural  that  fashion 
should  instinctively  rebel  against  restraint.  The  honest 
burgher’s  vrow  of  Middelburg  or  Enkhuyzen  claimed  the 
right  to  make  herself  as  grotesque  as  Queen  Elizabeth  in  all 
her  glory.  Sumptuary  laws  were  an  unwholesome  part  of 
feudal  tyranny,  and,  as  such,  were  naturally  dropping  into 
oblivion  on  the  free  soil  of  the  Netherlands.  It  was  the  com¬ 
plaint  therefore  of  moralists  that  unproductive  consumption 
was  alarmingly  increasing.  Formerly  starch  had  been  made 
of  the  refuse  parts  of  corn,  but  now  the  manufacturers  of  that 
article  made  use  of  the  bloom  of  the  wheat  and  consumed  as 
much  of  it  as  would  have  fed  great  cities.  In  the  little 
village  of  Wormer  the  starch-makers  used  between  three  and 
four  thousand  bushels  a  week.  Thus  a  substantial  gentle¬ 
woman  in  fashionable  array  might  bear  the  food  of  a  parish 

S1  Relazione  delle  Provincie  Unite. 


1596.  RESTRICTION  IN  THE  USE  OF  STARCH.  377 

upon  her  ample  bosom.  A  single  manufacturer  in  Amsterdam 
required  four  hundred  weekly  bushels.  Such  was  the  demand 
for  the  stiffening  of  the  vast  ruffs,  the  wonderful  head-gear, 
the  elaborate  lace-work,  stomachers  and  streamers,  without 
which  no  lady  who  respected  herself  could  possibly  go  abroad 
to  make  her  daily  purchases  of  eggs  and  poultry  in  the 
market-place. 

u  May  God  preserve  us/'  .exclaimed  a  contemporary 
chronicler,  unreasonably  excited  on  the  starch  question, 
“  from  farther  luxury  and  wantonness,  and  abuse  of  His 
blessings  and  good  gifts,  that  the  punishment  of  Jeroboam, 
which  followed  upon  Solomon's  fortunate  reign  and  the  gold- 
ships  of  Opliir  may  not  come  upon  us." 32 

The  States  of  Holland  not  confounding — as  so  often  has 
been  the  case — the  precepts  of  moral  philosophy  \Cith  those 
of  political  economy,  did  not,  out  of  fear  for  the  doom  of 
Jeroboam,  forbid  the  use  of  starch.  They  simply  laid  a  tax 
of  a  stiver  a  pound  on  the  commodity,33  or  about  six  per  cent, 
ad  valorem  ;  and  this  was  a  more  wholesome  way  of  serving 
the  State  than  by  abridging  the  liberty  of  the  people  in 
the  choice  of  personal  attire.  Meantime  the  preachers 
were  left  to  thunder  from  their  pulpits  upon  the  sinfulness 
of  starched  ruffles  and  ornamental  top-knots,  and  to  threaten 
their  fair  hearers  with  the  wrath  to  come,  with  as  much 
success  as  usually  attends  such  eloquence. 

There  had  been  uneasiness  in  the  provinces  in  regard  to 
the  designs  of  the  queen,  especially  since  the  States  had 
expressed  their  inability  to  comply  in  full  with  her  demands 
for  repayment.  Spanish  emissaries  had  been  busily  circu¬ 
lating  calumnious  reports  that  her  Majesty  was  on  the  eve  of 
concluding  a  secret  peace  with  Philip,  and  that  it  was  her 
intention  to  deliver  the  cautionary  towns  to  the  king.  The 
Government  attached  little  credence  to  such  statements,  but 
it  was  natural  that  Envoy  Caron  should  be  anxious  at  their 
perpetual  recurrence  both  in  England  and  in  the  provinces. 
So,  one  day,  he  had  a  long  conversation  with  the  Earl  of 


32  Reyd,  351. 


33  Ibid. 


378 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXll. 


Essex  on  the  subject  ;  for  it  will  he  recollected  that  Lord 
Leicester  had  strenuously  attempted  at  an  earlier  day  to  get 
complete  possession,  not  only  of  the  pledged  cities  hut  of 
Leyden  also,  in  order  to  control  the  whole  country.  Essex 
was  aflame  with  indignation  at  once,  and  expressed  himself 
with  his  customary  recklessness.  He  swore  that  if  her 
Majesty  were  so  far  forsaken  of  God  and  so  forgetful  of 
her  own  glory,  as  through  evil  counsel  to  think  of  making 
any  treaty  with  Spain  without  the  knowledge  of  the  States- 
General  and  in  order  to  cheat  them,  he  would  himself  make 
the  matter  as  public  as  it  was  possible  to  do,  and  would  place 
himself  in  direct  opposition  to  such  a  measure,  so  as  to  show 
the  whole  world  that  his  heart  and  soul  were  foreign  at  least 
to  any  vile  counsel  of  the  kind  that  might  have  been  given 
to  his  Sovereign.34  Caron  and  Essex  conversed  much  in  this 
vein,  and  although  the  envoy  especially  requested  him  not 
to  do  so,  the  earl,  who  was  not  distinguished  for  his  powers  of 
dissimulation,  and  who  suspected  Burleigh  of  again  tampering, 
as  he  had  often  before  tampered,  with  secret  agents  of  Philip, 
went  straight  to  the  queen  with  the  story.  Next  day,  Essex 
invited  Caron  to  dine  and  to  go  with  him  after  dinner  to  the 
queen.  This  was  done,  and,  so  soon  as  the  States’  envoy  was 
admitted  to  the  royal  presence,  her  Majesty  at  once  opened 
the  subject.  She  had  heard,  she  said,  that  the  reports  in 
question  had  been  spread  through  the  provinces,  and  she 
expressed  much  indignation  in  regard  to  them.  She  swore 
very  vehemently,  as  usual,  and  protested  that  she  had  better 
never  have  been  born  than  prove  so  miserable  a  princess  as 
these  tales  would  make  her.  The  histories  of  England,  she 
said,  should  never  describe  her  as  guilty  of  such  falsehood. 
She  could  find  a  more  honourable  and  fitting  means  of  making 
peace  than  by  delivering  up  cities  and  strongholds  so  sincerely 
and  confidingly  placed  in  her  hands.  She  hoped  to  restore 
them  as  faithfully  as  they  had  loyally  been  entrusted  to  her 
keeping.  She  begged  Caron  to  acquaint  the  States-General 
with  these  asseverations  ;  declaring  that  never  since  she  had 
34  Letter  of  Caron,  3  Dec.  1595,  apud  Bor,  IV.  150, 151. 


1596. 


INTERVIEW  OF  CARON  WITH  ELIZABETH. 


379 


sent  troops  to  the  Netherlands  had  she  lent  her  ear  to  .those- 
who  had  made  such  underhand  propositions.  She  was  aware 
that  Cardinal  Albert  had  propositions  to  make,  and  that  he 
was  desirous  of  inducing  both  the  French  king  and  herself 
to  consent  to  a  peace  with  Spain  :  but  she  promised  the 
States'  envoy  solemnly  before  God  to  apprise  him  of  any 
such  overtures,  so  soon  as  they  should  be  made  known  to 
herself.35 

Much  more  in  this  strain,  with  her  usual  vehemence  and 
mighty  oaths,  did  the  great  queen  aver,  and  the  rejjublican 
envoy,  to  whom  she  was  on  this  occasion  very  gracious,  was  fain 
to  believe  in  her  sincerity.  Yet  the  remembrance  of  the  amazing 
negotiations  between  the  queen's  ministers  and  the  agents  of 
Alexander  Farnese,  by  which  the  invasion  of  the  Armada  had 
been  masked,  could  not  but  have  left  an  uneasy  feeling  in 
the  mind  of  every  Dutch  statesman.  u  I  trust  in  God,"  said 
Caron,  u  that  He  may  never  so  abandon  her  as  to  permit  her 
to  do  the  reverse  of  what  she  now  protests  with  so  much 
passion.  Should  it  be  otherwise — which  God  forbid — I  should 
think  that  He  would  send  such  chastisement  upon  her  and 
her  people  that  other  princes  would  see  their  fate  therein  as 
in  a  mirror,  should  they  make  and  break  such  oaths  and 
promises.  I  tell  you  these  things  as  they  occur,  because,  as 
I  often  feel  uneasiness  myself,  I  imagine  that  my  friends  on 
the  other  side  the  water  may  be  subject  to  the  same  anxiety. 
Nevertheless,  beat  the  bush  as  I  may,  I  can  obtain  no  better 
information  than  this  which  I  am  now  sending  you."36 

It  had  been  agreed  that  for  a  time  the  queen  should  desist 
from  her  demands  for  repayment — which,  according  to  the 
Treaty  of  1585,  was  to  be  made  only  after  conclusion  of  peace 
between  Spain  and  the  provinces,  but  which  Elizabeth  was 
frequently  urging  on  the  ground  that  the  States  could  now 
make  that  peace  when  they  chose — and  in  return  for  such 
remission  the  republic  promised  to  furnish  twenty-four  sliijDS 
of  war  and  four  tenders  for  a  naval  expedition  which  was  now 
projected  against  the  Spanish  coast.  These  war-shrps  were  to 
35  Letter  of  Caron,  ubi  sup.  86  Ibid. 


2gQ  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXII. 

be  of  four  hundred,  three  hundred,  and  two  hundred  tons— 
eight  of  each  dimension— and  the  estimated  expense  of  their 
fitting  out  for  five  months  was  512,796  florins.37 

Before  the  end  of  April,  notwithstanding  the  disappoint¬ 
ment  occasioned  in  the  Netherlands  by  the  loss  of  Calais, 
which  the  States  had  so  energetically  striven  to  prevent, 
the  fleet  under  Admiral  John  of  Duvenwoord,  Seigneur  of 
Warmond,  and  Vice-Admirals  Jan  Gerbrantz  and  Cornelius 
Leusen,  had  arrived  at  Plymouth,  ready  to  sail  with  their 
English  allies.38  There  were  three  thousand  sailors  of  Holland 
and  Zeeland  on  board,  the  best  mariners  in  the  world,  and  two 
thousand  two  hundred  picked  veterans  from  the  ganisons  of 
the  Netherlands.39  These  land-troops  were  English,  but  they 
belonged  to  the  States’  army,  which  was  composed  of  Dutch, 
German,  Whlloon,  Scotch,  and  Irish  soldiers,  and  it  was  a 
liberal  concession  on  the  part  of  the  republican  Government 
to  allow  them  to  serve  on  the  present  expedition.  By  the 
terms  of  the  treaty  the  queen  had  no  more  power  to  send 
these  companies  to  invade  Spain  than  to  campaign  against 
Tyr  Owen  in  Ireland,  wdiile  at  a  moment  when  the  cardinal 
archduke  had  a  stronger  and  better-appointed  army  in 
Flanders  than  had  been  seen  for  many  years  in  the  pro¬ 
vinces,  it  was  a  most  hazardous  experiment  for  the  States 
to  send  so  considerable  a  portion  of  their  land  and  naval  forces  # 
upon  a  distant  adventure.  It  was  also  a  serious  blow  to  them 
to  he  deprived  for  the  whole  season  of  that  valiant  and 
experienced,  commander,  Sir  Francis  Vere,  the  most  valuable 
lieutenant,  save  Lewis  William,  that  Maurice  had  at  his 
disposition.  Yet  Vere  was  to  take  command  of  this  con¬ 
tingent  thus  sent  to  the  coast  of  Spain,  at  the  very  moment 
when  the  republican  army  ought  to  issue  from  their  winter 
quarters  and  begin  active  operations  in  the  field.  The  conse¬ 
quence  of  this  diminution  of  their  strength  and  drain  upon 
their  resources  was  that  the  States  were  unable  to  put  an 
army  in  the  field  during  the  current  year,  or  make  any 
attempt  at  a  campaign. 

37  Bor,  IY.  148,  182. 


33  Ibid.  191. 


39  Ibid. 


1596. 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  SPAIN. 


381 


The  queen  wrote  a  warm  letter  of  thanks  to  Admiral 
Warmond  for  the  promptness  and  efficiency  with  which  he 
had  brought  his  fleet  to  the  place  of  rendezvous,  and  now 
all  was  hustle  and  preparation  in  the  English  ports  for  the 
exciting  expedition  resolved  upon.  Never  during  Philip's 
life-time,  nor  for  several  years  before  his  birth,  had  a  hostile 
foot  trod  the  soil  of  Spain,  except  during  the  brief  landing  at 
Corunna  in  1590,  and,  although  the  king’s  heard  had  been 
well  singed  ten  years  previously  by  Sir  Francis  Drake,  and 
although  the  coast  of  Portugal  had  still  more  recently  been 
invaded  by  Essex  and  Vere,  yet  the  present  adventure  was  on 
a  larger  scale,  and  held  out  brighter  prospects  of  success  than 
any  preceding  expedition  had  done.  In  an  age  when  the 
line  between  the  land  and  sea  service,  between  regular  cam¬ 
paigners  and  volunteers,  between  public  and  private  warfare, 
between  chivalrous  knight s-errant  and  buccaneers,  was  not 
very  distinctly  drawn,  there  could  be  nothing  more  exciting 
to  adventurous  spirits,  more  tempting  to  the  imagination  of 
those  who  hated  the  Pope  and  Philip,  who  loved  fighting, 
prize-money,  and  the  queen,  than  a  foray  into  Spain. 

It  was  time  to  return  the  visit  of  the  Armada.  Some  of 
the  sea-kings  were  gone.  Those  magnificent  freebooters, 
Drake  and  Hawkins,  had  just  died  in  the  West  Indies,  and 
doughty  Sir  Roger  Williams  had  left  the  world  in  which  he 
had  bustled  so  effectively,  bequeathing  to  posterity  a  classic 
memorial  of  near  a  half  century  of  hard  fighting,  written, 
one  might  almost  imagine,  in  his  demi-pique  saddle.  But 
that  most  genial,  valiant,  impracticable,  reckless,  fascinating 
hero  of  romance,  the  Earl  of  Essex — still  a  youth  although  a 
veteran  in  service — was  in  the  spring-tide  of  favour  and  glory, 
and  was  to  command  the  land-forces  now  assembled  at  Ply¬ 
mouth.  That  other  corsair40 — as  the  Spaniards  called  him — 
that  other  charming  and  heroic  shape  in  England’s  chequered 
chronicle  of  chivalry  and  crime — famous  in  arts  and  arms, 
politics,  science,  literature,  endowed  with  so  many  of  the  gifts 

40  “  Otro  corsario  11  am  ado  Guateral,”  says  the  historian  Herrera,  ingeniously 
fusing  into  one  the  Christian  and  family  names  of  Sir  Walter  Kaleigh,  iii.  585. 


382 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXII. 


by  which  men  confer  lustre  on  their  age  and  country,  whose 
name  was  already  a  part  of  England's  eternal  glory,  whose 
tragic  destiny  was  to  he  her  undying  shame — Raleigh,  the 
soldier,  sailor,  scholar,  statesman,  poet,  historian,  geographical 
discoverer,  planter  of  empires  yet  unborn — was  also  present, 
helping  to  organize  the  somewhat  chaotic  elements  of  which 
the  chief  Anglo-Dutch  enterprise  for  this  year  against  the 
Spanish  world-dominion  was  compounded. 

And,  again,  it  is  not  superfluous  to  recal  the  comparatively 
slender  materials,  both  in  bulk  and  numbers,  over  which  the 
vivid  intelligence  and  restless  energy  of  the  two  leading 
Protestant  powers,  the  Kingdom  and  the  Republic,  disposed. 
Their  contest  against  the  overshadowing  empire,  which  was 
so  obstinately  striving  to  become  the  fifth-monarchy  of 
history,  was  waged  by  land  and  naval  forces,  which  in  their 
aggregate  numbers  would  scarce  make  a  startling  list  of 
killed  and  wounded  in  a  single  modern  battle  ;  by  ships  such 
that  a  whole  fleet  of  them  might  be  swept  out  of  existence 
with  half-a-dozen  modern  broadsides  ;  by  weapons  which  would 
seem  to  modern  eyes  like  clumsy  toys  for  children.  Such  was 
the  machinery  by  which  the  world  was  to  be  lost  and  won,  less 
than  three  centuries  ago.  Could  science,  which  even  in  that 
age  had  made  gigantic  strides  out  of  the  preceding  darkness, 
have  revealed  its  later  miracles,  and  have  presented  its 
terrible  powers  to  the  dospotism  which  was  seeking  to  crush 
all  Christendom  beneath  its  feet,  the  possible  result  might 
have  been  most  tragical  to  humanity.  While  there  are  few 
inventions  in  morals,  the  demon  Intellect  is  ever  at  his  work, 
knowing  no  fatigue  and  scorning  contentment  in  his  restless 
demands  upon  the  infinite  Unknown.  Yet  moral  truth  remains 
unchanged,  gradually  through  the  ages  extending  its  influence, 
and  it  is  only  by  conformity  to  its  simple  and  eternal  dictates 
that  nations,  like  individuals,  can  preserve  a  healthful  exist¬ 
ence.  In  the  unending  warfare  between  right  and  wrong, 
between  liberty  and  despotism,  Evil  has  the  advantage  of 
rapidly  assuming  many  shapes.  It  has  been  well  said  that 
constant  vigilance  is  the  price  of  liberty.  The  tendency  of 


1596.  STRUGGLE  BETWEEN  LIBERTY  AND  DESPOTISM.  383 

our  own  times,  stimulated  by  scientific  discoveries  and  their 
*  practical  application,  is  to  political  consolidation,  to  the 
absorption  of  lesser  communities  in  greater,  just  as  dis¬ 
integration  was  the  leading  characteristic  of  the  darker  ages. 
The  scheme  of  Charlemagne  to  organize  Europe  into  a  single 
despotism  was  a  brilliant  failure  because  the  forces  which 
were  driving  human  society  into  local  and  gradual  recon¬ 
struction  around  various  centres  of  crystallization  were 
irresistible  to  any  countervailing  enginry  which  the  emperor 
had  at  his  disposal.  The  attempt  of  Philip,  eight  centuries 
later,  at  universal  monarchy,  was  frivolous,  although  he  could 
dispose  of  material  agencies  which  in  the  hands  of  Charle¬ 
magne  might  have  made  the  dreams  of  Charlemagne  possible. 
It  was  frivolous  because  the  rising  instinct  of  the  age  was  for 
religious,  political,  and  commercial  freedom  in  a  far  intenser 
degree  than  those  who  lived  in  that  age  were  themselves 
aware.  A  considerable  republic  had  been  evolved  as  it  were 
involuntarily  out  of  the  necessities  of  the  time  almost  without 
self-consciousness  that  it  was  a  republic,  and  even  against 
the  desire  of  many  who  were  guiding  its  destinies.  And  it 
found  itself  in  constant  combination  with  two  monarchs, 
despotic  at  heart  and  of  enigmatical  or  indifferent  religious 
convictions,  who  yet  reigned  over  peoples  largely  influenced 
by  enthusiasm  for  freedom.  Thus  liberty  was  preserved 
for  the  world ;  but,  as  the  law  of  human  progress  would 
seem  to  be  ever  by  a  spiral  movement,  it  seems  strange 
to  the  superficial  observer  not  prone  to  generalizing,  that 
Calvinism,  which  unquestionably  was  the  hard  receptacle  in 
which  the  germ  of  human  freedom  was  preserved  in  various 
countries  and  at  different  epochs,  should  heave  so  often  de¬ 
generated  into  tyranny.  Yet  notwithstanding  the  burning 
of  Servetus  at  Geneva,  and  the  hanging  of  Mary  Dyer  at 
Boston,  it  is  certain  that  France,  England,  the  Netherlands, 
and  America,  owe  a  large  share  of  such  political  liberty  as 
they  heave  enjoyed  to  Calvinism.  It  may  be  possible  for 
large  masses  of  humanity  to  accept  for  ages  the  idea  of  one 
infallible  Church,  however  tyrannical :  but  the  idea  once 


y 


384 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  NXXII. 


admitted  that  there  may  he  many  churches  ;  that  what  is 
called  the  State  can  be  separated  from  what  is  called  the  * 
Church  ;  the  plea  of  infallibility  and  of  authority  soon  becomes 
ridiculous — a  mere  fiction  of  political  or  fashionable  quackery 
to  impose  upon  the  uneducated  or  the  unreflecting. 

And  now  Essex,  Raleigh  and  Howard,  Vere,  Warmond  and 
Nassau  were  about  to  invade  the  shores  of  the  despot  who 
sat  in  his  study  plotting  to  annex  England,  Scotland,  Ireland, 
France,  the  Hutch  republic,  and  the  German  empire  to  the 
realms  of  Spain,  Portugal,  Naples,  Milan,  and  the  Eastern 
and  Western  Indies,  over  which  he  already  reigned. 

The  fleet  consisted  of  fifty-seven  ships  of  war,  of  which 

13  Jan.  twenty-four  were  Dutch  vessels  under  Admiral 

1596.  Warmond,  with  three  thousand  sailors  of  Holland 
and  Zeeland.  Besides  the  sailors,  there  was  a  force  of  six 
thousand  foot  soldiers,  including  the  English  veterans  from  the 
Netherlands  under  Sir  Francis  Yere.  There  were  also  fifty 
transports  laden  with  ammunition  and  stores.  The  expedi¬ 
tion  was  under  the  joint  command  of  Lord  High  Admiral 
Howard  and  of  the  Earl  of  Essex.  Many  noble  and  knightly 
volunteers,  both  from  England  and  the  republic,  were  on 
board,  including,  besides  those  already  mentioned,  Lord 
Thomas  Howard,  son  of  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  Sir  John 
Wingfield,  who  had  commanded  at  Gertruydenburg,  when  it 
had  been  so  treacherously  surrendered  to  Farnese ;  Count 
Lewis  Gunther  of  Nassau,  who  had  so  recently  escaped  from 
the  disastrous  fight  with  Mondragon  in  the  Lippe,  and  was 
now  continuing  his  education  according  to  the  plan  laid 
down  for  him  by  his  elder  brother  Lewis  William  ;  Nicolas 
Meetkerk,  Peter  Regesmortes,  Don  Christopher  of  Portugal, 
son  of  Don  Antonio,  and  a  host  of  other  adventurers. 

On  the  last  day  of  June  the  expedition  arrived  off  Cadiz. 
Next  morning  they  found  a  splendid  Spanish  fleet  in  the  har¬ 
bour  of  that  city,  including  four  of  the  famous  apostolic 
great  galleons,  St.  Philip,  St.  Matthew,  St.  Thomas,  and  St. 
Andrew,  with  twenty  or  thirty  great  war-ships  besides,  and 
fifty-seven  well-armed  Indiamen,  which  were  to  be  convoyed 


1596.  ATTACK  ON  THE  SPANISH  FLEET.  385 

on  their  outward  voyage,  with  a  cargo  estimated  at  twelve 
millions  of  ducats. 

The  St.  Philip  was  the  phenomenon  of  naval  architecture 
of  that  day,  larger  and  stronger  than  any  ship  before  i 
known.  She  was  two  thousand  tons  burthen,  carried 
eighty-two  bronze  cannon,  and  had.  a  crew  of  twelve  hundred 
men.  The  other  three  apostles  carried  each  fifty  guns  and 
four  hundred  men.  The  armament  of  the  other  war-ships 
varied  from  fifty-two  to  eighteen  guns  each.  The  presence 
of  such  a  formidable  force  might  have  seemed  a  motive  for 
discouragement,  or  at  least  of  caution.  On  the  contrary,  the 
adventurers  dashed  at  once  uj)on  their  prey  ;  thus  finding  a 
larger  booty  than  they  had  dared  to  expect.  There  was  but 
a  brief  engagement.  At  the  outset  a  Dutch  ship  accidentally 
blew  up,  and  gave  much  encouragement  to  the  Spaniards. 
Their  joy  was  but  short-lived.  Two  of  the  great  galleons 
were  soon  captured,  the  other  two,  the  St.  Philip  and  the 
St.  Thomas,  were  run  aground  and  burned.  The  rest  of 
the  war-ships  were  driven  within  the  harbour,  but  were 
unable  to  prevent  a  landing  of  the  enemy’s  forces.  In  the 
eagerness  of  the  allies  to  seize  the  city,  they  unluckily 
allowed  many  of  the  Indiamen  to  effect  their  escape  through 
the  puente  del  Zuazzo ,  which  had  not  been  supposed  a  navi¬ 
gable  passage  for  ships-  of  such  burthen.  Nine  hundred 
soldiers  under  Essex,  and  four  hundred  noble  volunteers 
under  Lewis  Gunther  of  Nassau,  now  sprang  on  shore,  and 
drove  some  eleven  hundred  Spanish  skirmishers  back  within 
the  gates  of  the  city,  or  into  a  bastion  recently  raised  to 
fortify  the  point  when  the  troops  had  landed.  Young  Nassau 
stormed  the  bulwark  sword  in  hand,  carried  it  at  the  first 
assault,  and  planted  his  colours  on  its  battlement.  It  was 
the  flag  of  William  the  Silent ;  for  the  republican  banner 
was  composed  of  the  family  colours  of  the  founder  of  the 
new  commonwealth.41  The  blazonry  of  the  proscribed  and 
assassinated  rebel  waved  at  last  defiantly  over  one  of  the 
chief  cities  of  Spain.  Essex  and  Nassau  and  all  the  rest 

41  Fruin,  357. 

vol.  iii. — 2  0 


* 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXII. 


386 


then  entered  the  city.  There  was  little  fighting.  Twenty- 
five  English  and  Hollanders  were  killed,  and  about  as  many 
Spaniards.  Essex  knighted  about  fifty  gentlemen,  English¬ 
men  and  Hollanders,  in  the  square  of  Cadiz  for  their  gal¬ 
lantry.  Among  the  number  were  Lewis  Gunther  of  Nassau, 
Admiral  Warmond,  and  Peter  Regesmortes.  Colonel  Nicolas 
Meetkerke*  was  killed  in  the  brief  action,  and  Sir  John  Wing¬ 
field,  who  insisted  in  prancing  about  on  horseback  $vithout 
his  armour,  defying  the  townspeople  and  neglecting  the 
urgent  appeal  of  Sir  Francis  Mere,  was  also  slain.  The 
Spanish  soldiers,  discouraged  by  the  defeat  of  the  ships  on 
which  they  had  relied  for  protection  of  the  town,  retreated 
with  a  great  portion  of  the  inhabitants  into  the  citadel. 
Next  morning  the  citadel  capitulated  without  striking  a  blow, 
although  there  were  six  thousand  able-bodied,  well-armed 
men  within  its  walls.  It  was  one  of  the  most  astonishing 
panics  ever  recorded.  The  great  fleet,  making  a 
2  Ju^'  third  of  the  king’s  navy,  the  city  of  Cadiz  and  its 
fortress,  were  surrendered  to  this  audacious  little  force,  which 
had  only  arrived  off  the  harbour  thirty-six  hours  before.  The 
invaders  had,  however,  committed  a  great  mistake.  They 
had  routed,  and,  as  it  were,  captured  the  Spanish  galleons, 
but  they  had  not  taken  possession  of  them,  such  had  been 
their  eagerness  to  enter  the  city.  It  was  now  agreed  that 
the  fleet  should  be  ransomed  for  two  million  ducats,  but  the 
proud  Duke  of  Medina  Sidonia,  who  had  already  witnessed 
the  destruction  of  one  mighty  armada,  preferred  that  these 
splendid  ships  too  should  perish  rather  than  that  they  should 
pay  tribute  to  the  enemy.  Scorning  the  capitulation  of  the 
commandant  of  the  citadel,  he  ordered  the  fleet  to  be  set  on 
fire.  Thirty-two  ships,  most  of  them  vessels  of  war  of  the 
highest  class,  were  burned,  with  all  their  equipments.  Twelve 
hundred  cannon  sunk  at  once  to  the  bottom  of  the  Bay  of 
Cadiz,  besides  arms  for  five  or  six  thousand  men.  At  least 
one-third  of  Philip’s  effective  navy  was  thus  destroyed. 

The  victors  now  sacked  the  city  very  thoroughly,  but  the 
results  were  disappointing.  A  large  portion  of  the  portable 

*  See  note,  p.  599. 


1598. 


SACK  OF  CADIZ. 


387 


wealth  of  the  inhabitants,  their  gold  and  their  jewelry,  had 
been  so  cunningly  concealed  that,  although  half  a  dozen 
persons  weie  toitured  till  they  should  reveal  hidden  treasures, 
not  more  than  five  hundred  thousand  ducats  worth  of  plunder 
was  obtained.  Another  sum  of  equal  amount  having  been 
levied  upon  the  citizens  ;  forty  notable  personages,  among 
them  eighteen  ecclesiastical  dignitaries,  were  carried  off  as 
hostages  for  its  payment.  The  city  was  now  set  on  fire  by 
command  of  Essex  in  four  different  quarters.  Especially  the 
cathedral  and  other  churches,  the  convents  and  the  hospitals, 
were  burned.  It  was  perhaps  not  unnatural  that  both 
Englishmen  and  Hollanders  should  be  disposed  to  wreak  a 
barbarous  vengeance  on  everything  representative  of  the 
Church  which  they  abhorred,  and  from  which  such  endless 
misery  had  issued  to  the  uttermost  corners  of  their  own 
countries.  But  it  is  at  any  rate  refreshing  to  record  amid 
these  acts  of  jullage  and  destruction,  in  which,  as  must  ever 
be  the  case,  the  innocent  and  the  lowly  were  made  to  suffer 
for  the  crimes  of  crowned  and  mitred  culprits,  that  not  many 
special  acts  of  cruelty  were  committed  upon  individuals. 
Ho  man  was  murdered  in  cold  blood,  no  woman  was  out¬ 
raged.42  The  beautiful  city  was  left  a  desolate  and  blackened 
ruin,  and  a  general  levy  of  spoil  was  made  for  the  benefit  of 
the  victors,  but  there  was  no  infringement  of  the  theory  and 
practice  of  the  laws  of  war  as  understood  in  that  day  or  in 
later  ages.  It  is  even  recorded  that  Essex  ordered  one  of 
his  soldiers,  who  was  found  stealing  a  woman’s  gown,  to  be 
hanged  on  the  spot,  but  that,1  wearied  by  the  intercession  of 
an  ecclesiastic  of  Cadiz,  the  canon  Quesada,  he  consented 
at  last  to  pardon  the  marauder.43 

It  was  the  earnest  desire  of  Essex  to  hold  Cadiz  instead  of 
destroying  it.  With  three  thousand  men,  and  with  temporary 
supplies  from  the  fleet,  the  place  could  be  maintained  against 


42  This  is  the  express  testimony  of 
the  Spanish  historian  Herrera,  whose 
evidence  will  hardly  be  disputed.  Her¬ 
rera,  iii.  645. 

43  The  chief  authorities  consulted 


tor  this  expedition  are  Bor,  IV.  232- 
235.  Meteren,  374-377.  Reyd,  278- 
281.  Herrera,  iii.  632-645.  De  Thou 
xii.  671-674, 1. 116.  Camden,  517-523. 
Fruin,  353-360. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap  XXXII. 


388 


all  comers  ;  Holland  and  England  together  commanding  the 
seas.  Admiral  Warmond  and  all  the  Netherlander  seconded 
the  scheme,  and  offered  at  once  to  put  ashore  from  their 
vessels  food  and  munitions  enough  to  serve  two  thousand 
men  for  two  months.  If  the  English  admiral  would  do  as 
much,  the  place  might  he  afterwards  supplied  without  limit 
and  held  till  doomsday,  a  perpetual  thorn  in  Philip's  side. 
Sir  Francis  Yere  was  likewise  warmly  in  favour  of  the  pro¬ 
ject,  but  he  stood  alone.  All  the  other  Englishmen  opposed 
it  as  hazardous,  extravagant,  and  in  direct  contravention  of 
the  minute  instructions  of  the  queen.  With  a  sigh  or  a 
curse  for  what  he  considered  the  superfluous  caution  of  his 
royal  mistress,  and  the  exaggerated  docility  of  Lord  High 
Admiral  Howard,  Essex  was  fain  to  content  himself  with  the 
sack  and  the  conflagration,  and  the  allied  fleet  sailed  away 
from  Cadiz. 

On  their  way  towards  Lisbon  they  anchored  off  Faro,  and 
landed  a  force,  chiefly  of  Netherlander,  who  expeditiously 
burned  and  plundered  the  place.  When  they  reached  the 
neighbourhood  of  Lisbon,  they  received  information  that  a 
great  fleet  of  Indiamen,  richly  laden,  were  daily  expected  from 
the  Flemish  islands,  as  the  Azores  were  then  denominated. 
Again  Essex  was  vehemently  disposed  to  steer  at  once  for 
that  station,  in  order  to  grasp  so  tempting  a  prize  ;  again 
he  was  strenuously  supported  by  the  Dutch  admiral  and 
Yere,  and  again  Lord  Howard  peremptorily  interdicted  the 
plan.  It  was  contrary  to  his  instructions  and  to  his  ideas  of 
duty,  he  said,  to  risk  so  valuable  a  portion  of  her  Majesty's 
fleet  on  so  doubtful  a  venture.  His  ships  were  not  fitted 
for  a  winter’s  cruise,  he  urged.  Thus,  although  it  was  the 
very  heart*  of  midsummer,  the  fleet  was  ordered  to  sail 
homeward.  The  usual  result  of  a  divided  command  was 
made  manifest,  and  it  proved  in  the  sequel  that,  had  they 
sailed  for  the  islands,  they  would  have  pounced  at  exactly 
the  right  moment  upon  an  unprotected  fleet  of  merchant¬ 
men,  with  cargoes  valued  at  seven  millions  of  ducats.  Essex, 
not  being  willing  to  undertake  the  foray  to  the  Azores  with 


1596.  RETURN  OF  THE  ALLIED  FLEET.  339 

the  Dutcli  ships  alone,  was  obliged  to  digest  his  spleen  as 
best  he  could.  Meantime  the  English  fleet  bore  away  for 
England,  leaving  Essex  in  his  own  ship,  together  with  the 
two  captured  Spanish  galleons,  to  his  fate.  That  fate  might 
have  been  a  disastrous  one,  for  his  prizes  were  not  fully 
manned,  his  own  vessel  was  far  from  powerful,  and  there 
were  many  rovers  and  cruisers  upon  the  seas.  The  Dutch 
admiral,  with  all  his  ships,  however,  remained  in  company, 
and  safely  convoyed  him  to  Plymouth,  where  they  14  Aug. 
arrived  only  a  day  or  two  later  than  Howard  and  1586- 
his  fleet.44  Warmond,  who  had  been  disposed  to  sail  up 
the  Thames  in  order  to  pay  his  respects  to  the  queen,  was 
informed  that  his  presence  would  not  he  desirable  but  rather 
an  embarrassment.  He,  however,  received  the  following 
letter  from  the  hand  of  Elizabeth. 

“  Monsieur  Duvenwoord, — The  report  made  to  me  by  the 
generals  of  our  fleet,  just  happily  arrived  from  the  coast  of 
Spain,  of  the  devoirs  of  those  wdio  have  been  partakers  in  so 
famous  a  victory,  ascribes  so  much  of  it  to  the  valour,  skill, 
and  readiness  exhibited  by  yourself  and  our  other  friends 
from  the  Netherlands  under  your  command,  during  the  whole 
course  of  the  expedition,  as  to  fill  our  mind  with  special  joy 
and  satisfaction,  and  with  a  desire  to  impart  these  feelings  to 
you.  No  other  means  presenting  themselves  at  this  moment 
than  that  of  a  letter  (in  some  sense  darkening  the  picture  of 
the  conceptions  of  our  soul),  we  are  willing  to  make  use  of  it 
while  waiting  for  means  more  effectual.  Wishing  thus  to 
disburthen  ourselves  we  find  ourselves  confused,  not  knowing 
where  to  begin,  the  greatness  of  each  part  exceeding  the 
merit  of  the  other.  For,  the  vigour  and  promptness  with 
which  my  lords  the  States-General  stepped  into  the  enter¬ 
prise,  made  us  acknowledge  that  the  good  favour,  which  we 
have  always  borne  the  United  Provinces  and  the  proofs 
thereof  which  we  have  given  in  the  benefits  conferred  by  us 
upon  them,  had  not  been  ill-bestowed.  The  valour,  skill, 


44  Bor,  Meteren,  Reyd,  De  Thou,  ubi  sup. 


390  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXII. 

and  discipline  manifested  by  you  in  this  enterprise  show  that 
you  and  your  whole  nation  are  worthy  the  favour  and  pro¬ 
tection  of  princes  against  those  who  wish  to  tyrannize  over 
you.  But  the  honourableness  and  the  valour  shown  by  you, 
Sir  Admiral,  towards  our  cousin  the  Earl  of  Essex  on  his 
return,  when  he  unfortunately  was  cut  off  from  the  fleet,  and 
deep  in  the  night  was  deprived  of  all  support,  when  you  kept 
company  with  him  and  gave  him  escort  into  the  harbour  of 
Plymouth,  demonstrate  on  the  one  hand  your  foresight  in 
providing  thus  by  your  pains  and  patience  against  all  dis¬ 
asters,  which  through  an  accident  falling  upon  one  of  the 
chiefs  of  our  armada  might  have  darkened  the  great  victory  ; 
and  on  the  other  hand  the  fervour  and  fire  of  the  affection 
which  you  bear  us,  increasing  thus,  through  a  double  bond, 
the  obligations  we  are  owing  you,  which  is  so  great  in  our 
hearts  that  we  have  felt  bound  to  discharge  a  part  of  it  by 
means  of  this  writing,  which  we  beg  you  to  communicate  to 
the  whole  company  of  our  friends  under  your  command  ; 
saying  to  them  besides,  that  they  may  feel  assured  that  even 
as  we  have  before  given  proof  of  our  goodwill  to  their  father- 
land,  so  henceforth — incited  by  their  devoirs  and  merits — wo 
are  ready  to  extend  our  bounty  and  affection  in  all  ways 
which  may  become  a  princess  recompensing  the  virtues  and 
gratitude  of  a  nation  so  worthy  as  yours. 

“  Elizabeth  R. 

“  14 th  August ,  1596.”  45 


This  letter  was  transmitted  by  the  admiral  to  the  States- 
General,  who  furnished  him  with  a  copy  of  it,  but  enrolled 
the  original  in  their  archives  ;  recording  as  it  did,  in  the  hand 


45  The  letter,  translated  of  course 
into  Flemish,  is  given  in  full  by  Bor, 
IV.  235.  Incredible  as  it  may  seem, 
Camden  not  only  makes  no  allusion  to 
this  special  and  memorable  service  of 
the  Dutch  Admiral,  and  to  the  enthu¬ 
siastic  approbation  bestowed  upon  him 
and  his  comrades  by  the  queen,  but 
he  never  once  mentions  him  in  his 
account,  save  that  towards  the  end  of 
a  list  of  persons  knighted  after  the 


taking  of  the  city  the  name  of  John 
van  Duvenvord  appears.  The  English 
historian,  indeed,  carefully  suppresses 
the  share  taken  by  the  sailors  and 
soldiers  of  the  Dutch  republic  in  the 
expedition  ;  scarcely  the  faintest  allu¬ 
sion  being  made  to  them  from  the  be¬ 
ginning  to  the  end  of  his  narrative. 
The  whole  affair  is  represented  as  a 
purely  English  adventure  and  English 
triumph. 


1596.  PROPOSED  DISMEMBERMENT  OF  FRANCE.  39 1 

of  the  great  English  queen,  so  striking  a  testimony  to  the 
valour  and  the  good  conduct  of  Netherlanders.46 

The  results  of  this  expedition  were  considerable,  for  the 
king’s  navy  was  crippled,  a  great  city  was  destroyed,  and 
some  millions  of  plunder  had  been  obtained.  But  the  per¬ 
manent  possession  of  Cadiz,  which,  in  such  case,  Essex  hoped 
to  exchange  for  Calais,  and  the  destruction  of  the  fleet  at  the 
Azores — possible  achievements  both,  and  unwisely  neglected 
— would  have  been  far  more  profitable,  at  least  to  England. 
It  was  also  matter  of  deep  regret  that  there  was  much  quar¬ 
relling  between  the  Netherlanders  Ind  the  Englishmen  as  to 
their  respective  share  of  the  spoils  ;  the  Netherlanders  com¬ 
plaining  loudly  that  they  had  been  defrauded.  Moreover  the 
merchants  of  Middelburg,  Amsterdam,  and  other  commercial 
cities  of  Holland  and  Zeeland  were,  as  it  proved,  the  real ' 
owners  of  a  large  portion  of  the  property  destroyed  or  pil¬ 
laged  at  Cadiz  ;  so  that  a  loss  estimated  as  high  as  three 
hundred  thousand  florins  fell  upon  those  unfortunate  traders 
through  this  triumph  of  the  allies.47 

The  internal  consequences  of  the  fall  of  Calais  had 
threatened  at  the  first  moment  to  be  as  disastrous  as  the 
international  results  of  that  misfortune  had  already  proved. 
The  hour  for  the  definite  dismemberment  and  partition  of 
the  French  kingdom,  not  by  foreign  conquerors  but  among 
its  own  self-seeking  and  disloyal  grandees,  seemed  to  have 
struck.  The  indomitable  Henry,  ever  most  buoyant  when 
most  pressed  by  misfortune,  was  on  the  way  to  his  camp  at 
La  Fere,  encouraging  the  faint-hearted,  and  providing  as 
well  as  he  could  for  the  safety  of  the  places  most  menaced, 
when  he  was  r&et  at  St.  Quentin  by  a  solemn  deputation 
of  the  principal  nobles,  military  commanders,  and  provincial 
governors  of  France.  The  Duke  of  Montpensier  was  spokes¬ 
man  of  the  assembly,  and,  in  an  harangue  carefully  prepared 
for  the  occasion,  made  an  elaborate  proposition  to  the  king 
that  the  provinces,  districts,  cities,  castles,  and  other  strong¬ 
holds  throughout  the  kingdom  should  now  be  formally 

46  Bor,  ubi  sup.  47  Bor,  Meteren,  Reyd,  ubi  sup. 


202  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXII. 

bestowed  upon  the  actual  governors  and  commandants  thereof 
in  perpetuity  and  as  hereditary  property,  on  condition  of 
rendering  a  certain  military  service  to  the  king  and  his 
descendants.  It  seemed  so  amazing  that  this  temporary 
disaster  to  the  national  arms  should  he  used  as  a  pretext  for 
parcelling  out  France,  and  converting  a  great  empire  into 
a  number  of  insignificant  duchies  and  petty  principalities  ; 
that  this  movement  should  be  made,  not  by  the  partisans  of 
Spain,  but  by  the  adherents  of  the  king ;  and  that  its  leader 
should  be  his  own  near  relative,  a  prince  of  the  blood,  and 
a  possible  successor  to  *the  crown,  that  Henry  was  struck 
absolutely  dumb.  Misinterpreting  his  silence,  the  duke  pro¬ 
ceeded  very  confidently  with  his  well-conned  harangue  ;  and 
was  eloquently  demonstrating  that,  under  such  a  system, 
Henry,  as  principal  feudal  chief,  would  have  greater  military 
forces  at  his  disposal  whenever  he  chose  to  summon  his  faith¬ 
ful  vassals  to  the  field  than  could  be  the  case  while  the  mere 
shadow  of  royal  power  or  dignity  was  allowed  to  remain  ; 
when  the  king,  finding  at  last  a  tongue,  rebuked  his  cousin, 
not  angrily,  but  with  a  grave  melancholy  wliidh  was  more 
impressive  than  wrath. 

He  expressed  his  pity  for  the  duke  that  designing  intriguers 
should  have  thus  taken  advantage  of  his  facility  of  character  to 
cause  him  to  enact  a  part  so  entirely  unworthy  a  Frenchman, 
a  gentleman,  and  a  prince  of  the  blood.  He  had  himself,  at 
*  the  outset  of  his  career,  been  much  farther  from  the  throne 
than  Montpensier  was  at  that  moment ;  but  at  no  period  of 
his  life  would  he  have  consented  to  disgrace  himself  by 
attempting  the  dismemberment  of  the  realm.  So  far  from 
entering  for  a  moment  into  the  subject-matter  of  the  duke’s 
discourse,  he  gave  him  and  all  his  colleagues  distinctly  to 
understand  that  he  would  rather  die  a  thousand  deaths  than 
listen  to  suggestions  which  would  cover  his  family  and  the 
royal  dignity  with  infamy. 4S 

Rarely  has  political  cynicism  been  displayed  in  more 

43  Sully,  Memoirs,  t.  i.  lib.  vii.  pp.  417,  41S.  Compare  De  Thou,  t.  xiii,  lib. 
cxviii.  p.  l80. 


1596.  MILITARY  PROGRESS  IN  THE  NORTH.  393 

revolting  shape  than  in  this  deliberate  demonstration  by  the 
leading  patricians  and  generals  of  France,  to  whom  patriotism 
seemed  an  unimaginable  idea.  Thus  signally  was  their 
greediness  to  convert  a  national  disaster  into  personal  profit 
rebuked  by  the  king.  Henry  was  no  respecter  of  the  People, 
which  he  regarded  as  something  immeasurably  below  his 
feet.  On  the  contrary,  he  was  the  most  sublime  self-seeker 
of  them  all  ;  but  his  courage,  his  intelligent  ambition,  his 
breadth  and  strength  of  purpose,  never  .  permitted  him  to 
doubt  that  his  own  greatness  was  inseparable  from  the 
greatness  of  France.  Thus  he  represented  a  distinct  and 
wholesome  principle — the  national  integrity  of  a  great  homo¬ 
geneous  people  at  a  period  when  that  integrity  seemed, 
through  domestic  treason  and  foreign  hatred,  to  be  hopelessly 
lost.  Hence  it  is  not  unnatural  that  he  should  hold  his 
place  in  the  national  chronicle  as  Henry  the  Great. 

Meantime,  while  the  military  events  just  recorded  had 
been  occurring  in  the  southern  peninsula,  the  progress  of  the 
archduke  and  his  lieutenants  in  the  north  against  the  king 
and  against  the  republic  had  been  gratifying  to  the  ambition 
of  that  martial  ecclesiastic.  Soon  after  the  fall  of  Calais,  He 
Rosne  had  seized  the  castles  of  Guynes  and  Hames,  22-23  May, 
while  He  Mexia  laid  siege  to  the  important  strong-  159(f 
hold  of  Ardres.  The  garrison,  commanded  by  Count  Belin, 
was  sufficiently  numerous  and  well  supplied  to  maintain  the 
place  until  Henry,  whose  triumph  at  La  Fere  could  hardly 
be  much  longer  delayed,  should  come  to  its  relief.  To  the 
king’s  infinite  dissatisfaction,  however,  precisely  as  Hon 
Alvario  de  Osorio  was  surrendering  La  Fere  to  him,  after  a 
seven  months’  siege,  Ardres  was  capitulating  to  He  Mexia. 
The  reproaches  upon  Belin  for  cowardice,  imbecility,  and  bad 
faith,  were  bitter  and  general.  All  his  officers  had  vehe¬ 
mently  protested  against  the  surrender,  and  Henry  at  first 
talked  of  cutting  off  his  head.49  It  was  hardly  probable,  how- 
*  ever— had  the  surrender  been  really  the  result  of  treachery— 
that  the  governor  would  have  put  himself,  as  he  did  at  once, 

49  So  Justinus  of  Nassau  wrote  to  Prince  Maurice.  Bor,  IY.  194. 


394 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXII. 


in  the  king’s  power  ;  for  the  garrison  marched  out  of  Ardres 
with  the  commandant  at  their  head,  banners  displayed,  drums 
beating,  matches  lighted  and  bullet  in  mouth,  twelve  hundred 
fighting  men  strong,  besides  invalids.  Belin  was  possessed  of 
too  much  influence,  and  had  the  means  of  rendering  too  many 
pieces  of  service  to  the  politic  king,  whose  rancour  against 
Spain  was  perhaps  not  really  so  intense  as  was  commonly  sup¬ 
posed,  to  meet  with  the  condign  punishment  which  might 
have  been  the  fate  of  humbler  knaves. 

These  successes  having  been  obtained  in  Normandy,  the 
cardinal  with  a  force  of  nearly  fifteen  thousand  men  now 
took  the  field  in  Flanders  ;  and,  after  hesitating  for  a  time 
whether  he  should  attack  Breda,  Bergen,  Ostend,  or  Gertruy- 
denburg, — and  after  making  occasional  feints  in  various 
directions, — came,  towards  the  end  of  June,  before  Hulst. 
This  rather  insignificant  place,  with  a  population  of  but  one 
thousand  inhabitants,  was  defended  by  a  strong  garrison  under 
command  of  that  eminent  and  experienced  officer  Count 
Everard  Solms.  Its  defences  were  made  more  complete 
by  a  system  of  sluices,  through  which  the  country  around 
could  be  laid  under  water  ;  and  Maurice,  whose  capture  of 
the  town  in  the  year  1591  had  been  one  of  his  earliest 
military  achievements,  was  disposed  to  hold  it  at  all  hazards. 
He  came  in  person  to  inspect  the  fortifications,  and  appeared 
to  be  so  eager  on  the  subject,  and  so  likely  to  encounter 
unnecessary  hazards,  that  the  States  of  Holland  passed  a 
resolution  imploring  him  “  that  he  would  not,  in  his  heroic 
enthusiasm  and  laudable  personal  service,  expose  a  life  on 
which  the  country  so  much  depended  to  manifest  dangers.” 50 
The  place  was  soon  thoroughly  invested,  and  the  usual  series, 
of  minings  and  counter-minings,  assaults,  and  sorties  followed, 
in  the  course  of  which  that  courageous  and  corpulent  rene¬ 
gade,  De  Rosne,  had  his  head  taken  off  by  a  cannon-ball, 
while  his  son,  a  lad  of  sixteen,  was  fighting  by  his  side.51  On 
the  16th  August  the  cardinal  formally  demanded  the  sur¬ 
render  of  the  place,  and  received  the  magnanimous  reply  that 

50  Van  der  Kemp,  iii.  163.  51  Bor,  IV.  219.  Bentivoglio,  440. 


1596. 


CAPITULATION  OF  HULST. 


395 


Hulst  would  be  defended  to  the  death.  This  did  not,  how¬ 
ever,  prevent  the  opening  of  negotiations  the  very  same 
day.  All  the  officers,  save  one,  united  in  urging  Solms  to 
capitulate  ;  and  Solms,  for  somewhat  mysterious  reasons,  and, 
as  was  stated,  in  much  confusion,  gave  his  consent.  The 
single  malcontent  was  the  well-named  Matthew  Held,  whose 
family  name  meant  Hero,  and  who  had  been  one  of  the  chief 
actors  in  the  far-famed  capture  of  Breda.  He  was  soon 
afterwards  killed  in  an  unsuccessful  attack  made  by  Maurice 
upon  Yenlo. 

Hulst  capitulated  on  the  18th  August.52  The  terms  were 
honourable  ;  but  the  indignation  throughout  the  is  Aug. 
country  against  Count  Solms  was  very  great.  The  ^6* 
States  of  Zeeland,  of  whose  regiment  he  had  been  com¬ 
mander  ever  since  the  death  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  dismissed 
him  from  their  service,  while  a  torrent  of  wrath  flowed  upon 
him  from  every  part  of  the  country.  Members  of  the  States- 
General  refused  to  salute  him  in  the  streets  ;  eminent  person¬ 
ages  turned  their  backs  upon  him,  and  for  a  time  there  was 
no  one  willing  to  listen  to  a  word  in  his  defence.  The  usual 
reaction  in  such  cases  followed  ]  Maurice  sustained  the  com¬ 
mander,  who  had  doubtless  committed  a  grave  error,  but  who 
had  often  rendered  honourable  service  to  the  republic,  and 
the  States-General  gave  him- a  command  as  important  as  that 
of  which  he  had  been  relieved  by  the  Zeeland  States.  It  was 
mainly  on  account  of  the  tempest  thus  created  within  the 
Netherlands,  that  an  affair  of  such  slight  importance  came  to 
occupy  so  large  a  space  in  contemporary  history.  The  de¬ 
fenders  of  Solms  told  wild  stories  about  the  losses  of  the 
besieging  army.  The  cardinal,  who  was  thought  prodigal 
of  blood,  and  who  was  often  quoted  as  saying  “  his  soldiers’ 
lives  belonged  to  God  and  their  bodies  to  the  king,  53  had 
sacrificed,  it  was  ridiculously  said,  according  to  the  statement 
of  the  Spaniards  themselves,  five  thousand  soldiers  before  the 

52  For  the  siege  and  capture  of  Hulst,  see  Bor,  IV.  213-230.  Meteren,  380 
yegg.  Bentivoglio.  439,  440.  Reyd,  285-287.  Coloma,  225—229. 

63  Reyd,  ubi  sup. 


396 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXII. 


walls  of  Hulst.54  It  was  very  logically  deduced  therefrom 
that  the  capture  of  a  few  more  towns  of  a  thousand  inhabit¬ 
ants  each  would  cost  him  his  whole  army.  People  told  each 
other,  too,  that  the  conqueror  had  refused  a  triumph  which 
the  burghers  of  Brussels  wished  to  prepare  for  him  on  his 
entrance  into  the  capital,  and  that  he  had  administered  the 
very  proper  rebuke  that,  if  they  had  more  money  than  they 
knew  what  to  do  with,  they  should  expend  it  in  aid  of  the 
wounded  and  of  the  families  of  the  fallen,  rather  than  in 
velvets  and  satins  and  triumphal  arches.55  The  humanity  of 
the  suggestion  hardly  tallied  with  the  bloodthirstiness  of  which 
he  was  at  the  same  time  so  unjustly  accused — although  it 
might  well  he  doubted  whether  the  commander-in-chief,  even 
if  he  could  witness  unflinchingly  the  destruction  of  five  thou¬ 
sand  soldiers  on  the  battle-field,  would  dare  to  confront  a 
new  demonstration  of  schoolmaster  Houwaerts  and  his  fellow- 
pedants. 

The  fact  was,  however,  that,  the  list  of  casualties  in  the 
cardinal's  camp  during  the  six  weeks'  siege  amounted  to  six 
hundred,  while  the  losses  within  the  city  were  at  least  as 
many.53  There  was  no  attempt  to  relieve  the  place  ;  for  the 
States,  as  before  observed,  had  been  too  much  cramped  by 
the  strain  upon  their  resources  and  by  the  removal  of  so 
many  veterans  for  the  expedition  against  Cadiz  to  he  able  to 
muster  any  considerable  forces  in  the  field  during  the  whole 
of  this  year. 

For  a  vast  war  in  which  the  four  leading  powers  of  the 
earth  were  engaged,  the  events,  to  modern  eyes,  of  the  cam¬ 
paign  of  1596  seem  sufficiently  meagre.  Meantime,  during 
all  this  campaigning  by  land  and  sea  in  the  west,  there  had 
been  great  hut  profitless  bloodshed  in  the  east.  With  diffi¬ 
culty  did  the  holy  Roman  Empire  withstand  the  terrible, 
ever-renewed  assaults  of  the  unholy  realm  of  Ottoman — then 
in  the  full  flush  of  its  power — but  the  two  empires  still  coun- 


54  Bor,  Meteren,  Reyd,  Coloma,  ubi 
sup.,  especially  Reyd. 

55  Reyd. 

66  Relacion  de  la  presa  de  la  villa 


de  Hulst  en  Flandes,  17  Aug.  1590. 
There  seems  no  reason  why  the  car¬ 
dinal  in  these  private  despatches 
should  not  have  told  the  truth 


1596  PROJECTED  ALLIANCE  AGAINST  SPAIN.  397 

terbalanced  each  other,  and  contended  with  each  other  at  the 
gates  of  Vienna. 

As  the  fighting  became  more  languid,  however,  in  the 
western  part  of  Christendom,  the  negotiations  and  intrigues 
grew  only  the  more  active.  It  was  most  desirable  for  the 
republic  to  effect,  if  possible,  a  formal  alliance  offensive  and 
defensive  with  France  and  England  against  Spain.  The 
diplomacy  of  the  Netherlands  had  been  very  efficient  in 
bringing  about  the  declaration  of  war  by  Henry  against 
Philip,  by  which  the  current  year  had  opened,  after  Henry 
and  Philip  had  been  doing  their  best  to  destroy  each  other 
and  each  other’s  subjects  during  the  half-dozen  previous 
years.  Elizabeth,  too,  although  she  had  seen  her  shores  in¬ 
vaded  by  Philip  with  the  most  tremendous  armaments  that 
had  ever  floated  on  the  seas,  and  although  she  had  herself 
just  been  sending  fire  and  sword  into  the  heart  of  Spain,  had 
very  recently  made  the  observation57  that  she  and  Philip  were 
not  formally  at  war  with  each  other.  It  seemed,  therefore, 
desirable  to  the  States-Gfeneral  that  this  very  practical  war¬ 
fare  should  be,  as  it  were,  reduced  to  a  theorem.  In  this  case 
the  position  of  the  republic  to  both  powers  and  to  Spain  itself 
might  perhaps  be  more  accurately  defined. 

Calvaert,  the  States’  envoy— to  use  his  own  words— haunted 
Henry  like  his  perpetual  shadow,  and  was  ever  doing  his  best 
to  persuade  him  of  the  necessity  of  this  alliance.58  He  Sancy, 
as  we  have  seen,  had  just  arrived  in  England,  when  the  cool 
proposition  of  the  queen  to  rescue  Calais  from  Philip  on 
condition  of  keeping  it  for  herself  had  been  brought  to 
Boulogne  by  Sidney.  Notwithstanding  the  indignation  of 
the  king,  he  had  been  induced  directly  afterwards  to  send  an 
additional  embassy  to  Elizabeth,  with  the  Duke  of  Bouillon 
at  its  head  ;  and  he  had  insisted  upon  Calvaert’s  accompanying 
the  mission.  He  had,  as  he  frequently  observed,59  no  secrets 
from  the  States-General,  or  frojn  Calvaert,  who  had  been 
negotiating  upon  these  affairs  for  two  years  past  and  was  so 

57  “  welck  haer  Mag.  pretendeerde  tot  nocli  nict  gedaen  te  hebben.”  Cal¬ 
vert  to  tlie  States-General,  apud  Deventer,  ii.  117.  58  Ibid.  114.  59  Ibid.  118. 


J 


3gg  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXII. 

well  acquainted  with  all  their  hearings.  The  Dutch  envoy 
was  reluctant  to  go,— for  he  was  seriously  ill  and  very  poor 
in  purse, — hut  Henry  urged  the  point  so  vehemently,  that 
Calvaert  found  himself  on  hoard  ship  within  six  hours  of  the 
making  of  the  proposition.60  The  incident  shows  of  how  much 
account  the  republican  diplomatist  was  held  hy  so  keen  a 
judge  of  mankind  as  the  Bearnese  ;  hut  it  will  subsequently 
appear  that  the  candour  of  the  king  towards  the  States-Greneral 
and  their  representative  was  hy  no  means  without  certain 
convenient  limitations. 

De  Sancy  had  arrived  just  as — without  his  knowledge — 
Sidney  had  been  despatched  across  the  channel  with  the  brief 
mission  already  mentioned.  When  he  was  presented  to  the 
queen,  the  next  day,  she  excused  herself  for  the  propositions 
hy  which  Henry  had  been  so  much  enraged,  hy  assuring  the 
envoy  that  it  had  been  her  intention  only  to  keep  Calais  out 
of  the  enemy's  hand,  so  long  as  the  king's  forces  were  too 
much  occupied  at  a  distance  to  provide  for  its  safety.  As 
diplomatic  conferences  were  about  to  begin  in  which — even 
more  than  in  that  age,  at  least,  was  usually  the  case — the 
object  of  the  two  conferring  powers  was  to  deceive  each 
other,  and  at  the  same  time  still  more  decidedly  to  defraud 
other  states,  Sancy  accepted  the  royal  explanation,  although 
Henry's  special  messenger,  Lomenie,  had  just  brought  him 
from  the  camp  at  Boulogne  a  minute  account  of  the  propo¬ 
sitions  of  Sidney.61 

The  envoy  had,  immediately  afterwards,  an  interview  with 
Lord  Burghley,  and  at  once  perceived  that  he  was  no  friend 
to  his  master.  Cecil  observed  that  the  queen  had  formerly 
been  much  bound  to  the  king  for  religion's  sake.  As  this 
tie  no  longer  existed,  there  was  nothing  now  to  unite  them 
save  the  proximity  of  the  two  States  to  each  other  and  their 
ancient  alliances,  a  bond  purely  of  interest  which  existed  only 
so  long  as  princes  found  therein  a  special  advantage. 

60  Calvert  to  States-General,  apud  Deventer,  ii.  118. 

61  See  especially  for  these  negotiations  De  Thou,  t.  xii.  lib.  116,  p.  247, 
seqq.  Compare  Bor,  IV.  253-257. 


1596.  THE  FRENCH  ENVOY  AND  LORD  BURGHLEY.  399 

De  Sancy  replied  that  the  safety  of  the  two  crowns 
depended  upon  their  close  alliance  against  a  very  powerful 
foe  who  was  equally  menacing  to  them  both.  Cecil  rejoined 
that  he  considered  the  Spaniards  deserving  of  the  very  high¬ 
est  praise  for  having  been  able  to  plan  so  important  an 
enterprise,  and  to  have  so  well  deceived  the  King  of  F ranee 
by  the  promptness  and  the  secrecy  of  their  operations  as  to 
allow  him  to  conceive  no  suspicion  as  to  their  designs. 

To  this  not  very  friendly  sarcasm  the  envoy,  indignant  that 
France  should  thus  he  insulted  in  her  misfortunes,  exclaimed 
that  he  prayed  to  God  that  the  affairs  of  Englishmen  might 
never  he  reduced  to  such  a  point  as  to  induce  the  world  to 
judge  by  the  result  merely,  as  to  the  sagacity  of  their  counsels. 
He  added  that  there  were  many  passages  through  which  to 
enter  France,  and  that  it  was  difficult  to  he  present  every¬ 
where,  in  order  to  defend  them  all  against  the  enemy. 

A  few  days  afterwards  the  Duke  of  Bouillon  arrived 
in  London.  He  had  seen  Lord  Essex  at  Dover  as  7  May, 
he  passed,  and  had  endeavoured  without  success  to  lo96- 
dissuade  him  from  his  expedition  against  the  Spanish  coast. 
The  conferences  opened  on  the  7th  May,  at  Greenwich, 
between  ♦Burghley,  Cohham,  the  Lord  Chamberlain,  and  one 
or  two  other  commissioners  on  the  part  of  the  queen,  and 
Bouillon,  Sancy,  Du  Yair,  and  Ancel,  as  plenipotentiaries  of 
Henry. 

There  was  the  usual  indispensable  series  of  feints  at  the 
outset,  as  if  it  .were  impossible  for  statesmen  to  meet  around 
a  green  table  except  as  fencers  in  the  field  or  pugilists  in  the 
ring. 

“  We  have  nothing  to  do,”  said  Burghley,  “  except  to  listen 
to  such  propositions  as  may  be  made  on  the  part  of  the  king, 
and  to  repeat  them  to  her  Highness  the  queen.”  • 

“  You  cannot  be  ignorant,”  replied  Bouillon,  “of  the  purpose 
for  which  we  have  been  sent  hither  by  his  Very  Christian 
Majesty.  You  know  very  well  that  it  is  to  conclude  a  league 
with  England.  ;Tis  necessary,  therefore,  for  the  English  to 
begin  by  declaring  whether  they  are  disposed  to  enter  into 


400 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXII. 


such  an  alliance.  This  point  once  settled,  the  French  can 
make  their  propositions,  hut  it  would  he  idle  to  dispute  about 
the  conditions  of  a  treaty,  if  there  is  after  all  no  treaty  to  he 
made.” 

To  this  Cecil  rejoined,  that,  if  the  king  were  reduced  to  the 
necessity  of  asking  succour  from  the  queen,  and  of  begging 
for  her  alliance,  it  was  necessary  for  them,  on  the  other  hand, 
to  see  what  he  was  ready  to  do  for  the  queen  in  return,  and 
to  learn  what  advantage  she  could  expect  from  the  league. 

The  duke  said  that  the  English  statesmen  were  perfectly 
aware  of  the  French  intention  of  proposing  a  league  against 
the  common  enemy  of  both  nations,  and  that  it  would  he 
unquestionably  for  the  advantage  of  both  to  unite  their  forces 
for  a  vigorous  attack  upon  Spain,  in  which  case  it  would  he 
more  difficult  for  the  Spanish  to  resist  them  than  if  each  were 
acting  separately.  It  was  no  secret  that  the  Sj3aniards  would 
rather  attack  England,  than  France,  because  their  war  against 
England,  being  coloured  by  a  religious  motive,  would  he  much 
less  odious,  and  would  even  have  a  specious  pretext.  More¬ 
over  the  conquest  of  England  would  give  them  an  excellent 
vantage  ground  to  recover  what  they  had  lost  in  the  Nether¬ 
lands.  If,  on  the  contrary,  the  enemy  should  throw  himself 
with  his  whole  force  upon  France,  the  king,  who  would  per¬ 
haps  lose  many  places  at  once,  and  might  hardly  he  able  to 
maintain  himself  single-handed  against  domestic  treason  and 
a  concentrated  effort  on  the  part  of  Spain,  would  probably 
find  it  necessary  to  make  a  peace  with  that  power.  Nothing 
could  he  more  desirable  for  Spain  than  such  a  result,  for  she 
would  then  he  free  to  attack  England  and  Holland,  undis¬ 
turbed  by  any  fear  of  France.  This  was  a  piece  of  advice, 
the  duke  said,  which  the  king  offered,  in  the  most  friendly 
spirit,  and  as  a  proof  of  his  affection,  to  her  Majesty's  earnest 
consideration. 

Burghley  replied  that  all  this  seemed  to  him  no  reason  for 
making  a  league.  te  What  more  can  the  queen  do,”  he 
observed,  u  than  she  is  already  doing  P  She  has  invaded 
Spain  by  land  and  sea,  she  has  sent  troops  to  Spain,  France, 


1596.  DE  SANCY’S  APPEAL  FOR  ENGLISH  AID.  401 

and  tlie  Netherlands  ;  she  has  lent  the  king  fifteen  hundred 
thousand  crowns  in  gold.  In  short,  the  envoys  ought  rather 
to  be  studying  how  to  repay  her  Majesty  for  her  former 
benefits  than  to  be  soliciting  fresh  assistance/'  He  added 
that  the  king  was  so  much  stronger  by  the  recent  gain  of 
Marseilles  as  to  be  easily  able  to  bear  the  loss  of  places  of  far 
less  importance,  while  Ireland,  on  the  contrary,  was  a  constant 
danger  to  the  queen.  The  country  was  already  in  a  blaze, 
on  account  of  the  recent  landing  effected  there  by  the 
Spaniards,  and  it  was  a  very  ancient  proverb  among  the 
English,  that  to  attack  England  it  was  necessary  to  take 
the  road  of  Ireland. 

Bouillon  replied  that  in  this  war  there  was  much  difference 
between  the  position  of  France  and  that  of  England.  The 
queen,  notwithstanding  hostilities,  obtained  her  annual  revenue 
as  usual,  while  the  king  was  cut  off  from  his  resources  and 
obliged  to  ruin  his  kingdom  in  order  to  wage  war.  Sancy 
added,  that  it  must  be  obvious  to  the  English  ministers  that 
the  peril  of  Holland  was  likewise  the  peril  of  England  and 
of  France,  but  that  at  the  same  time  they  could  plainly  see 
that  the  king,  if  not  succoured,  would  be  forced  to  a  peace 
with  Spain.  All  his  counsellors  were  urging  him  to  this, 
and  it  was  the  interest  of  all  his  neighbours  to  prevent  such 
a  step.  Moreover,  the  proposed  league  could  not  but  be 
advantageous  to  the  English  ;  whether  by  restraining  the 
Spaniards  from  entering  England,  or  by  facilitating  a  com¬ 
bined  attack  upon  the  common  enemy.  The  queen  might 
invade  any  portion  of  the  Flemish  coast  at  her  pleasure,  while 
the  king's  fleet  could  sail  with  troops  from  his  ports  to 
prevent  any  attack  upon  her  realms. 

At  this  Burghley  turned  to  his  colleagues  and  said,  in 
English,  “  The  French  are  acting  according  to  the  proverb  ; 
they  wish  to  sell  us  the  bear-skin  before  they  have  killed  the 
bear."  62 

Sancy,  who  understood  English,  rejoined,  “  We  have  no 

62  De  Thou,  653.  The  historian,  probably,  according  to  Fruin,  346,  took 
his  account  from  the  papers  of  Du  Vair. 

VOL.  III. — 2  I) 


402 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXII. 


bear-skin  to  sell,  but  we  are  giving  you  a  very  good  and 
salutary  piece  of  advice.  It  is  for  you  to  profit  by  it  as  you 
may.” 

“  Where  are  these  ships  of  war,  of  which  you  were 
speaking  ?  ”  asked  Burghley. 

“  They  are  at  Bochelle,  at  Bordeaux,  and  at  St.  Malo,” 
replied  de  Sancy. 

“  And  these  ports  are  not  in  the  king's  possession,”  said  the 
Lord  Treasurer. 

The  discussion  was  growing  warm.  The  Duke  of  Bouillon, 
in  order  to  put  an  end  to  it,  said  that  what  England  had  most 
to  fear  was  a  descent  by  Spain  upon  her  coasts,  and  that  the 
true  way  to  prevent  this  was  to  give  occupation  to  Philip's 
army  in  Flanders.  The  soldiers  in  the  fleet  then  preparing 
were  raw  levies  with  which  he  would  not  venture  to  assail 
her  kingdom.  The  veterans  in  Flanders  were  the  men  on 
whom  he  relied  for  that  purpose.  Moreover  the  queen,  who 
had  great  influence  with  the  States-General,  would  procure 
from  them  a  prohibition  of  all  commerce  between  the  pro¬ 
vinces  and  Spain  ;  all  the  Netherlands  would  be  lost  to 
Philip,  his  armies  would  disperse  of  their  own  accord  ;  the 
ponces  of  Italy,  to  whom  the  power  of  Spain  was  a  perpetual 
menace,  would  secretly  supply  funds  to  the  allied  powers,  and 
the  Germans,  declared  enemies  of  Philip,  would  furnish 
troops. 

Burghley  asserted  confidently  that  this  could  never  be 
obtained  from  the  Hollanders,  who  lived  by  commerce  alone. 
Upon  which  Sancy,  wearied  with  all  these  difficulties,  inter¬ 
rupted  the  Lord  Treasurer  by  exclaiming,  “  If  the  king  is  to 
expect  neither  an  alliance  nor  any  succour  on  your  part,  he 
will  be  very  much  obliged  to  the  queen  if  she  will  be  good 
enough  to  inform  him  of  the  decision  taken  by  her,  in  order 
that  he  may,  upon  his  side,  take  the  steps  most  suitable  to 
the  present  position  of  his  affairs.” 

The  session  then  terminated.  Two  days  afterwards,  in 
another  conference,  Burghley  offered  three  thousand  men  on 
the  part  of  the  queen,  on  condition  that  they  should  be  raised 


1596.  FURTHER  CONFERENCE  WITH  LORD  BURGHLEY.  403 

at  the  king’s  expense,  and  that  they  should  not  leave  England 
until  they  had  received  a  month’s  pay  in  advance. 

The  Duke  of  Bouillon  said  this  was  far  from  being  what 
had  been  expected  of  the  generosity  of  her  Majesty,  that  if 
the  king  had  money  he  would 'find  no  difficulty  in  raising 
troops  in  Switzerland  and  Germany,  and  that  there  was  a 
very  great  difference  between  hired  princes  and  allies.63  The 
English  ministers  having  answered  that  this  was  all  the  queen 
could  do,  the  duke  and  Sancy  rose  in  much  excitement, 
saying  that  they  had  then  no  further  business  than  to  ask  for 
an  audience  of  leave,  and  to  return  to  France  as  fast  as 
possible. 

Before  they  bade  farewell  to  the  queen,  however,  the 
envoys  sent  a  memoir  to  her  Majesty,  in  which  they  set  forth 
that  the  first  proposition  as  to  a  league  had  been  made  by 
Sir  Henry  Umton,  and  that  now,  when  the  king  had  sent 
commissioners  to  treat  concerning  an  alliance,  already  recom¬ 
mended  by  the  queen’s  ambassador  in  France,  they  had  been 
received  in  such  a  way  as  to  indicate  a  desire  to  mock  them 
rather  than  to  treat  with  them.  They  could  not  believe,  they 
said,  that  it  was  her  Majesty’s  desire  to  use  such  language  as 
had  been  addressed  to  them,  and  they  therefore  implored  her 
plainly  to  declare  her  intentions,  in  order  that  they  might 
waste  no  more  time  unnecessarily,  especially  as  the  high 
offices  with  which  their  sovereign  had  honoured  them  did  not 
allow  them  to  remain  for  a  long  time  absent  from  France. 

The  effect  of  this  memoir  upon  the  queen  was,  that  fresh 
conferences  were  suggested,  which  took  place  at  intervals 
between  the  11th  and  the  26th  of  May.  They  were  charac¬ 
terized  by  the  same  mutual  complaints  of  overreachings  and 
of  shortcomings  by  which  all  the  previous  discussions  had 
been  distinguished.  On  the  17th  May  the  French  envoys 
even  insisted  on  taking  formal  farewell  of  the  queen,  and 
were  received  by  her  Majesty  for  that  purpose  at  a  final 
audience.  After  they  had  left  the  presence — the  preparations 

63  “  Beaucoup  de  difference  entre  des  princes  a  gages  et  des  allies.” — De  Thou, 
655. 


404  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXII. 

for  their  homeward  journey  being  already  made — the  queen 
sent  Sir  Robert  Cecil,  Henry  Brooke,  son  of  Lord 
17  May.  anq  La  Fontaine,  minister  of  a  French 

church  in  England,  to  say  to  them  how  very  much  mortified 
she  was  that  the  state  of  her  affairs  did  not  permit  her 
to  give  the  king  as  much  assistance  as  he  desired,  and  to 
express  her  wish  to  speak  to  them  once  more  before  their 
departure. 

The  result  of  the  audience  given  accordingly  to  the  envoys, 
two  days  later,  was  the  communication  of  her  decision  to 
enter  into  the  league  proposed,  but  without  definitely  con¬ 
cluding  the  treaty  until  it  should  be  ratified  by  the  king. 

On  the  26th  May  articles  were  finally  agreed  upon,  by 
which  the  king  and  queen  agreed  to  defend  each 
^6  May.  0^e]^g  dominions,  to  unite  in  attacking  the  com¬ 
mon  enemy,  and  to  invite  other  princes  and  states  equally 
interested  with  themselves  in  resisting  the  ambitious  projects 
of  Spain,  to  join  in  the  league.  It  was  arranged  that  an 
army  should  be  put  in  the  field  as  soon  as  possible,  at  the 
expense  of  the  king  and  queen,  and  of  such  other  powers  as 
should  associate  themselves  in  the  proposed  alliance  ;  that 
this  army  should  invade  the  dominions  of  the  Spanish 
monarch,  that  the  king  and  queen  were  never,  without  each 
other's  consent,  to  make  peace  or  truce  with  Philip  ;  that  the 
queen  should  immediately  raise  four  thousand  infantry  to 
serve  six  months  of  every  year  in  Picardy  and  Normandy, 
with  the  condition  that  they  were  never  to  be  sent  to  a 
distance  of  more  than  fifty  leagues  from  Boulogne  ;  that  when 
the  troubles  of  Ireland  should  be  over  the  queen  should  be 
at  liberty  to  add  new  troops  to  the  four  thousand  men  thus 
promised  by  her  to  the  league  ;  that  the  queen  was  to  furnish 
to  these  four  thousand  men  six  months'  pay  in  advance  before 
they  should  leave  England,  and  that  the  king  should  agree  to 
repay  the  amount  six  months  afterwards,  sending  meanwhile 
four  nobles  to  England  as  hostages.  If  the  dominions  of  the 
queen  should  be  attacked  it  was  stipulated  that,  at  two 
months'  notice,  the  king  should  raise  four  thousand  men  at 


1596. 


FORMATION  OF  THE  ALLIANCE. 


405 


the  expense  of  the  queen  and  send'  them  to  her  assistance, 
and  that  they  were  to  serve  for  six  months  at  her  charge,  hut 
were  not  to  he  sent  to  a  distance  of  more  than  fifty  leagues 
from  the  coasts  of  France.64 

The  English  were  not  willing  that  the  States-General 
should  he  comprehended  among  the  powers  to  he  invited  to 
join  the  league,  because  being  under  the  protection  of  the 
Queen  of  England  they  were  supposed  to  have  no  will  hut 
hers.65  Burghley  insisted  accordingly  that,  in  speaking  of 
those  who  were  thus  to  he  asked,  no  mention  was  to  he  made 
of  peoples  nor  of  states,  for  fear  lest  the  States-General  might 
he  included  under  those  terms.66  The  queen  was,  however, 
brought  at  last  to  yield  the  point,  and  consented,  in  order  to 
satisfy  the  French  envoys,  that  to  the  word  princes  should  he 
added  the  general  expression  orders  or  estates.66  The  obstacle 
thus  interposed  to  the  formation  of  the  league  by  the  hatred 
of  the  queen  and  of  the  privileged  classes  of  England  to 
popular  liberty,  and  by  the  secret  desire  entertained  of 
regaining  that  sovereignty  over  the  provinces  which  had 
been  refused  ten  years  before  by  Elizabeth,  was  at  length  set 
aside.  The  republic,  which  might  have  been  stifled  at  its 
birth,  was  now  a  formidable  fact,  and  could  neither  be 
annexed  to  the  English  dominions  nor  deprived  of  its  ex¬ 
istence  as  a  new  member  of  the  European  family. 

It  being  no  longer  possible  to  gainsay  the  presence  of 
the  young .  commonwealth  among  the  nations,  the  next 
best  thing— so  it  was  thought— was  to  defraud  her  in 
the  treaty  to  which  she  was  now  invited  to  accede.  This, 
as  it  will  presently  appear,  the  King  of  France  and  the 
Queen  of  England  succeeded  in  doing  very  thoroughly,  and 
they  accomplished  it  notwithstanding  the  astuteness  and  the 
diligence  of  the  States’  envoy,  who  at  Henry’s  urgent  request 
had  accompanied  the  French  mission  to  England.  Calvaert 
had  been  very  active  in  bringing  about  the  arrangement,  to 
assist  in  which  he  had,  as  we  have  seen,  risen  from  a  sick  bed 


64  De  Thou,  647-660,  seqq. 

66  Bor,  IV.  256.  De  Thou,  ubi  sup. 


65  Ibid.  660. 
66  Ibid 


406 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXII. 


and  made  the  journey  to  England.  “  The  proposition  for  an 
offensive  and  defensive  alliance  was  agreed  to  by  her  Ma¬ 
jesty's  Council,  but  under  intolerable  and  impracticable  con¬ 
ditions/'  said  he,  “and,  as  such,  rejected  by  the  duke  and 
Sancy,  so  that  they  took  leave  of  her  Majesty.  At  last, 
after  some  negotiation  in  which,  without  boasting,  I  may  say 
that  I  did  some  service,  it  was  again  taken  in  hand,  and  at 
last,  thank  God,  although  with  much  difficulty,  the  league 
has  been  concluded."67 

When  the  task  was  finished  the  French  envoys  departed 
to  obtain  their  master's  ratification  of  the  treaty.  Elizabeth 
expressed  herself  warmly  in  regard  to  her  royal  brother, 
inviting  him  earnestly  to  pay  her  a  visit,  in  which  case  she 
said  she  would  gladly  meet  him  half  way  ;  for  a  sight  of  him 
would  be  her  only  consolation  in  the  midst  of  her  adversity 
and  annoyance.  “  He  may  see  other  princesses  of  a  more 
lovely  appearance,"  she  added,  “but  he  will  never  make  a 
visit  to  a  more  faithful  friend."68 

But  the  treaty  thus  concluded  was  for  the  public.  The 
real  agreement  between  France  and  England  was  made  by 
the  commissioners  a  few  days  later,  and  reduced  the  osten¬ 
sible  arrangement  to  a  sham,  a  mere  decoy  to  foreign 
nations,  especially  to  the  Dutch  republic,  to  induce  them  to 
imitate  England  in  joining  the  league,  and  to  emulate  her 
likewise  in  affording  that  substantial  assistance  to  the  league 
which  in  reality  England  was  very  far  from  giving. 

“  Two  contracts  were  made,"  said  Secretary  of  State 
Yilleroy ;  “  the  one  public,  to  give  credit  and  reputation  to 
the  said  league,  the  other  secret ,  which  destroyed  the  effects  and 
the  'promises  of  the  first.  By  the  first  his  Majesty  was  to  be 
succoured  by  four  thousand  infantry,  which  number  was 
limited  by  the  second  contract  to  tioo  thousand ,  who  icere  to 
reside  and  to  serve  only  in  the  cities  of  Boulogne  and  Montreuil , 
assisted  by  an  equal  number  of  French,  and  not  otherwise, 
and  on  condition  of  not  being  removed  from  those  towns 
unless  his  Majesty  should  be  personally  present  in  Picardy 
67  Calvaert’s  Report,  in  Deventer,  117.  6S  Ibid. 


1596.  DUPLICITY  OF  THE  TREATY.  407 

with  an  army,  in  which  case  they  might  serve  in  Picardy,  but 
nowhere  else/' 69 

An  English  garrison  in  a  couple  of  French  seaports,  over 
against  the  English  coast,  would  hardly  have  seemed  a 
sufficient  inducement  to  other  princes  and  states  to  put  large 
armies  in  the  field  to  sustain  the  Protestant  league,  had  they 
known  that  this  was  the  meagre  result  of  the  protocoling 
and  disputations  that  had  been  going  on  all  the  summer  at 
Greenwich. 

Nevertheless  the  decoy  did  its  work.  The  envoys  returned 
to  France,  and  it  was  not  until  three  months  later  26  Aug. 
that  the  Duke  of  Bouillon  again  made  his  appearance  1596- 
in  England,  bringing  the  treaty  duly  ratified  by  Henry.  The 
league  was  then  solemnized,  on  the  26th  August,  by  the 
queen  with  much  pomp  and  ceremony.  Three  peers  of  the 
realm  waited  upon  the  French  ambassador  at  his  lodgings, 
and  escorted  him  and  his  suite  in  seventeen  royal  coaches 
to  the  Tower.  Seven  splendid  barges  then  conveyed  them 
along  the  Thames  to  Greenwich.  On  the  pier  the  ambassador 
was  received  by  the  Earl  of  Derby  at  the  head  of  a  great 
suite  of  nobles  and  high  functionaries,  and  conducted  to  the 
palace  of  Nonesuch.70 

There  was  a  religious  ceremony  in  the  royal  chapel,  where 
a  special  pavilion  had  been  constructed.  Standing  within 
this  sanctuary,  the  queen,  with  her  hand  on  her  breast,  swore 
faithfully  to  maintain  the  league  just  concluded.  She  then 
gave  her  hand  to  the  Duke  of  Bouillon,  who  held  it  in  both 
his  own,  while  psalms  were  sung  and  the  organ  resounded 
through  the  chapel.  Afterwards  there  was  a  splendid  ban¬ 
quet  in  the  palace,  the  duke  sitting  in  solitary  grandeur  at 


69  Fruin,  in  his  masterly  ‘  Tien 
Jaren  nit  den  tachtigjarigen  Oorlog,’ 
is  the  first,  so  far  as  I  know,  that  ever 
called  public  attention  to  the  extraor¬ 
dinary  perfidy  of  these  transactions. 
See  in  particular,  pp.  372-374. 

Camden,  however,  alludes  to  the 
fact  that  “  shortly  after  there  was 
another  treaty  had,  wherein  it  was 
agreed  that  this  year  no  more  than 


two  thousand  English  should  he  sent 
over,  which  should  serve  only  in  Bou¬ 
logne  and  Monstreul,  unless  the  king 
should  come  personally  to  Picardy,  &c. 
(b.  iv.  p.  525).  But  the  essence  of  this 
“  other  treaty”  was,  that  it  was  kept 
secret  from  those  most  interested  in 
knowing  its  existence. 

™  Bor,  IV.  256,  257. 


408 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXIL 


the  royal  table,  being  placed  at  a  respectful  distance  from 
her  Majesty,  and  the  dishes  being  placed  on  the  board  by  the 
highest  nobles  of  the  realm,  who,  upon  their  knees,  served 
the  queen  with  wine.  No  one  save  the  ambassador  sat  at 
Elizabeth’s  table,  but  in  the  same  hall  was  spread  another, 
at  which  the  Earl  of  Essex  entertained  many  distinguished 
guests,  young  Count  Lewis  Gunther  of  Nassau  among  the 
number. 

In  the  midsummer  twilight  the  brilliantly  decorated  barges 
were  again  floating  on  the  historic  river,  the  gaily-coloured 
lanterns  lighting  the  sweep  of  the  oars,  and  the  sound  of  lute 
and  viol  floating  merrily  across  the  water.  As  the  ambassa¬ 
dor  came  into  the  courtyard  of  his  house,  he  found  a  crowd 
of  several  thousand  people  assembled,  who  shouted  welcome 
to  the  representative  of  Henry,  and  invoked  blessings  on  the 
head  of  Queen  Elizabeth  and  of  her  royal  brother  of  France. 
Meanwhile  all  the  bells  of  London  wTere  ringing,  artillery 
was  thundering,  and  bonfires  were  blazing,  until  the  night 
was  half  spent.71 

Such  was  the  holiday-making  by  which  the  league  between 
the  great  Protestant  queen  and  the  ex-chief  of  the  Hugue¬ 
nots  of  France  was  celebrated  within  a  year  after  the  pope 
had  received  him,  a  repentant  sinner,  into  the  fold  of  the 
Church.  Truly  it  might  be  said  that  religion  was  rapidly 
ceasing  to  be  the  line  of  demarcation  among  the  nations,  as 
had  been  the  case  for  the  two  last  generations  of  mankind. 

The  Duke  of  Bouillon  soon  afterwards  departed  for  the 
Netherlands,  where  the  regular  envoy  to  the  commonwealth, 
Paul  Chouart  Seigneur  de  Buzanval,  had  already  been  pre¬ 
paring  the  States-General  for  their  entrance  into  the  league. 
11  Sept.  Of  course  it  was  duly  impressed  upon  those  repub- 
1596.  licans  that  they  should  think  themselves  highly 
honoured  by  the  privilege  of  associating  themselves  with  so 
august  an  alliance.  The  cjueen  wrote  an  earnest  letter  to 
the  States  urging  them  to  join  the  league.  “  Especially 
should  you  do  so,”  she  said,  “on  account  of  the  reputation 

71  Bor,  IV.  256,  257. 


1596.  OBJECTS  OF  THE  CATHOLIC  LEAGUE.  409 

which  you  will  thereby  gain  for  your  affairs  with  the  people 
who  are  under  you,  seeing  you  thus  sustained  (besides  the 
certainty  which  you  have  of  our  favour)  by  the  friendship  of 
other  confederated  princes,  and  particularly  by  that  of  the 
most  Christian  king.  ” 72 

On  the  31st  October  the  articles  of  agreement  under  which 
the  republic  acceded  to  the  new  confederation  were  31  Oct. 
signed  at  the  Hague.  Of  course  it  was  not  the  lo96* 
exact  counterpart  of  the  famous  Catholic  association.  Madam. 
League,  after  struggling  feebly  for  the  past  few  years,  a 
decrepit  beldame,  was  at  last  dead  and  buried.  But  there 
had  been  a  time  when  she  was  filled  with  exuberant  and 
terrible  life.  She,  at  least,  had  known  the  object  of  her 
creation,  and  never,  so  long  as  life  was  in  her,  had  she 
faltered  in  her  dread  purpose.  To  extirpate  Protestantism, 
to  murder  Protestants,  to  burn,  hang,  butcher,  bury  them 
alive,  to  dethrone  every  Protestant  sovereign  in  Europe, 
especially  to  assassinate  the  Queen  of  England,  the  Prince  of 
Orange,  with  all  his  race,  and  Henry  of  Navarre,  and  to 
unite  in  the  accomplishment  of  these  simple  purposes  all  the 
powers  of  Christendom  under  the  universal  monarchy  of 
Philip  of  Spain — for  all  this,  blood  was  shed  in  torrents,  and 
the  precious  metals,  of  the  “ Indies"  squandered  as  fast  as 
the  poor  savages,  who  were  thus  taking  their  first  lessons  in 
the  doctrines  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  could  dig  it  from  the 
mines.  For  this  America  had  been  summoned,  as  it  were  by 
almighty  fiat,  out  of  previous  darkness,  in  order  that  it  might 
furnish  money  with  which  to  massacre  all  the  heretics  of  the 
earth.  For  this  great  purpose  was  the  sublime  discovery  of 
the  Genoese  sailor  to  be  turned  to  account.  These  aims  were 
intelligible,  and  had  in  part  been  attained.  William  of 
Orange  had  fallen,  and  a  patent  of  nobility,  with  a  handsome 
fortune,  had  been  bestowed  upon  his  assassin.  Elizabeth’s 
life  had  been  frequently  attempted.  So  had  those  of  Henry, 
of  Maurice,  of  Olden-Barnevel^l.  Divine  providence  might 
perhaps  guide  the  hand  of  future  murderers  with  greater 

72  Bor,  IV.  260. 


410 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXII. 


accuracy,  for  even  if  Madam  League  were  dead,  her  ghost 
still  walked  among  the  Jesuits  and-  summoned  them  to  com¬ 
plete  the  crimes  left  yet  unfinished. 

But  what  was  the  design  of  the  new  confederacy  ?  It  was 
not  a  Protestant  league.  Henry  of  Navarre  could  no  longer 
he  the  chief  of  such  an  association,  although  it  was  to 
Protestant  powers  only  that  he  could  turn  for.  assistance. 
It  was  to  the  commonwealth  of  the  Netherlands,  to  the 
northern  potentates  and  to  the  Calvinist  and  Lutheran  princes 
of  Germany,  that  the  king  and  queen  could  alone  appeal  in 
their  designs  against  Philip  of  Spain. 

The  position  of  Henry  was  essentially  a  false  one  from  the 
beginning.  He  felt  it  to  be  so,  and  the  ink  was  scarce  dry 
with  which  he  signed  the  new  treaty  before  he  was  secretly 
casting  about  him  to  make  peace  with  that  power  with  which 
he  was  apparently  summoning  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  to 
do  battle.  Even  the  cautious  Elizabeth  was  deceived  by  the 
crafty  Bearnese,  while  both  united  to  hoodwink  the  other 
states  and  princes. 

On  the  31st  October,  accordingly,  the  States-General  agreed 
31  Oct.  to  go  into  the  league  with  England  and  France, 
1596.  “in  orqer  resist  the  enterprises  and  ambitious 
designs  of  the  King  of  Spain  against  all  the  princes  and 
potentates  of  Christendom.”  As  the  queen  had  engaged — » 
according  to  the  public  treaty  or  decoy — to  furnish  four 
thousand  infantry  to  the  league,  the  States  now  agreed  to 
raise  and  pay  for  another  four  thousand  to  be  maintained  in 
the  king’s  service  at  a  cost  of  four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
florins  annually,  to  be  paid  by  the  month.  The  king  pro¬ 
mised,  in  case  the  Netherlands  should  be  invaded  by  the 
enemy  with  the  greater  part  of  his  force,  that  these  four 
thousand  soldiers  should  return  to  the  Netherlands.  The 
king  further  bound  himself  to  carry  on  a  sharp  offensive  war 
in  Artois  and  Hainault.73 


13  Articles  of  agreement  between  the  King  and  the  States-General  of  tho 
Netherlands,  signed  by  Bouillon  and  Buzanval,  31  Oct.  1596,  apud  Bor,  IV. 
265-267. 


1596.  AFFAIRS  IN  GERMANY.  411 

The  States-General  would  have  liked  a  condition  inserted 
in  the  treaty  that  no  peace  should  he  made  with  Spain  by 
England  or  France  without  the  consent  of  the  provinces  ;  hut 
this  was  peremptorily  refused. 

Perhaps  the  republic  had  no  special  reason  to  he  grateful 
for  the  grudging  and  almost  contemptuous  manner  in  which 
it  had  thus  been  virtually  admitted  into  the  community  of 
sovereigns  ;  hut  the  men  who  directed  its  affairs  were  far  too 
enlightened  not  to  see  how  great  a  step  was  taken  when  their 
political  position,  now  conceded  to  them,  had  been  secured 
In  good  faith  they  intended  to  carry  out  the  provisions  of  the 
new  treaty,  and  they  immediately  turned  their  attention  to 
the  vital  matters  of  making  new  levies  and  of  imposing  new 
taxes,  by  means  of  which  they  might  render  themselves 
useful  to  their  new  allies. 

Meantime  Ancel  was  deputed  by  Henry  to  visit  the 
various  courts  of  Germany  and  the  north  in  order  to  obtain, 
if  possible,  new  members  for  the  league.74  But  Germany 
was  difficult  to  rouse.  The  dissensions  among  Protestants 
were  ever  inviting  the  assaults  of  the  Papists.  Its  multitude 
of  sovereigns  were  passing  their  leisure  moments  in  wrangling 
among  themselves  as  usual  on  abstruse  points  of  theology 
and  devoting  their  serious  hours  to  banquetting,  deep 
drinking,  and  the  pleasures  of  the  chase.  The  jeremiads  of 
old  John  of  Nassau  grew  louder  than  ever,  but  his  voice  was 
of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness.  The  wrath  to  come  of  that 
horrible  Thirty  Years'  War,  which  he  was  not  to  witnegs? 
seemed  to  inspire  all  his  prophetic  diatribes.  But  there  were 
few  to  heed  them.  Two  great  dangers  seemed  ever  impend¬ 
ing  over  Christendom,  and  it  is  difficult  to  decide  which 
fate  would  have  been  the  more  terrible,  the  establishment  of 
the  universal  monarchy  of  Philip  II.,  or  the  conquest  of 
Germany  by  the  Grand  Turk.  But  when  Ancel  and  other 
emissaries  sought  to  obtain  succour  against  the  danger  from 
.the  south-west,  he  was  answered  by  the  clash  of  arms  and 

14  See  an  account  of  Ancel’s  missions,  speeches,  and  negotiations,  in  De 
Thou,  xiii.  77-87, 1.  118.  Bor,  IV.  289. 


412 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap  XXXII. 


the  shrieks  of  horror  which  came  daily  from  the  south-east.75 
In  vain  was  it  urged,  and  urged  with  truth,  that  the  Alcoran 
was  less  cruel  than  the  Inquisition,  that  the  soil  of  Europe 
might  he  overrun  by  Turks  and  Tartars,  and  the  crescent 
planted  triumphantly  in  every  village,  with  less  disaster  to 
the  human  race,  and  with  better  hope  that  the  germs  of 
civilization  and  the  precejjts  of  Christianity  might  survive 
the  invasion,  than  if  the  system  of  Philip,  of  Torquemada, 
and  of  Alva,  should  become  the  universal  law.  But  the 
Turk  was  a  frank  enemy  of  Christianity,  while  Philip  mur¬ 
dered  Christians  in  the  name  of  Christ.  The  distinction 
imposed  upon  the  multitudes,  with  whom  words  were  things. 
Moreover,  the  danger  from  the  young  and  enterprising 
Mahomet  seemed  more  appalling  to  the  imagination  than  the 
menace,  from  which  experience  had  taken  something  of  its 
terrors,  of  the  old  and  decrepit  Philip. 

The  Ottoman  empire,  in  its  exact  discipline,  in  its  terrible 
concentration  of  purpose,  in  its  contempt  for  all  arts  and 
sciences,  and  all  human  occupation  save  the  trade  of  war 
and  the  pursuit  of  military  dominion,  offered  a  strong 
contrast  to  the  distracted  condition  of  the  holy  Roman 
empire,  where  an  intellectual  and  industrious  people,  dis- 


75  “  J’ai  cru  de  devoir  ici  sur  la  foi  de 
ceux  qui  en  ont  ete  temoins  oculaires, 
afln  de  donner  par  la  line  juste  idee 
de  la  splendeur  de  Tempire  Ottoman, 
de  ses  richesses,  de  sa  puissance  et  de 
la*  discipline  exacte  qui  s’observe  au 
dedans  et  au  dehors,  afin  que  nos  peu- 
ples  ne  soient  plus  etonnes  ni  si  in- 
dignes,  si  tandis  que  nos  princes  Chre¬ 
tiens  languissent  dans  l’oisevete  et 
dans  une  mollesse  infame  et  travaillent 
sans  cesse  a  se  detruire  les  uns  les 
autres  par  leurs  haines  ou  par  leurs 
jalousies,  les  Turcs  dont  les  commence¬ 
ments  ont  ete  si  peu  de  chose  ont  forme 
un  si  grand  empire.  Quand  on  fera 
reflexion  sur  la  severite  de  leur  disci¬ 
pline,  sur  leur  eloignement  du  luxe 
et  de  tous  les  vices  que  traine  avec 
soi  la  mollesse,  et  qu’il  n’y  a  point 
d’autre  route  parmi  eux  pour  s’elever 
aux  grands  emplois,  et  faire  de  grandes 
fortunes,  que  les  vertus  militaires, leurs 


vaste  progres  n’auront  plus  rien  qui 
surprenne.”  Such  are  the  admiring 
words  of  so  enlightened  a  statesman 
and  historian  as  Jacques  Auguste  de 
Thou,  xii.  580, 1.  115. 

“  Wol  zu  wiinschen  wehre,”  said 
old  John  of  Nassau,  “das  man  in 
Zeiten  uffwachen  und  uff  die  wege 
gedenken  wolte,  wie  nicht,  allein 
diesem  bluthundt  dem  Tlirken  son- 
dern  aucli  dem  Pabst,  welchen  D.  Lu¬ 
ther  seliger  in  seinem  christlichen 
Gesang,  ‘  Erlialt  uns  Herrbei  deinem 
Wort/  vor  und  den  Turken  nachsetzt, 
mit  verleihung  Gottlicher  hiilffe  moge 
widerstanden,  und  viel  jamer  und 
ehlendt  und  blut  vergiessen,  ja  die  ver- 
herung  der  ganzen  Teutschen  nation 
sambt  andren  christlichen  Konigrei- 
chen  und  Landern  vorkommen  wer- 
den,”  &c.,  &c.  Groen  v.  Prinsterer, 
Archives,  I.  330  (2e  serie). 


1596.  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  EMPEROR  AND  THE  TURK.  413 


tracted  by  half  a  century  of  religious  controversy  and  groan¬ 
ing  under  one  of  the  most  elaborately  perverse  of  all  the 
political  systems  ever  invented  by  man,  seemed  to  offer  itself 
an  easy  prey  to  any  conqueror.  The  Turkish  power  was  in 
the  fulness  of  its  aggressive  strength,  and  seemed  far  more 
formidable  than  it  would  have  done  had  there  been  clearer 
perceptions  of  what  constitutes  the  strength  and  the  wealth 
of  nations.  Could  the  simple  truth  have  been  thoroughly 
comprehended  that  a  realm  founded  upon  such  principles 
was  the  grossest  of  absurdities,  the  Eastern  might  have 
seemed  less  terrible  than  the  Western  danger. 

But  a  great  campaign,  at  no  considerable  distance  from 
the  walls  of  Vienna,  had  occupied  the  attention  of  Germany 
during  the  autumn.  Mahomet  had  taken  the  field  in  person 
with  a  hundred  thousand  men,  and  the  emperor's  brother, 
Maximilian,  in  conjunction  with  the  Prince  of  Transylvania, 
at  the  head  of  a  force  of  equal  magnitude,  had  gone  forth  to 
give  him  battle.  Between  the  Theiss  and  the  Danube,  at 
Keveste,  not  far  from  the  city  of  Erlau,  on  the  26th  26  Oct. 
October,  the  terrible  encounter  on  wliich  the  fate  1596* 
of  Christendom  seemed  to  hang  at  last  took  place,  and  Europe 
held  its  breath  in  awful  suspense  until  its  fate  should  be 
decided.  When  the  result  at  last  became  known,  a  horrible 
blending  of  the  comic  and  the  tragic,  such  as  has  rarely  been 
presented  in  history,  startled  the  world.  Seventy  thousand 
human  beings — Moslems  and  Christians — were  lying  dead  or 
wounded  on  the  banks  of  a  nameless  little  stream  which  flows 
into  the  Theiss,  and  the  commanders-in-chief  of  both  armies 
were  running  away  as  fast  as  horses  could  carry  them.  Each 
army  believed  itself  hopelessly  defeated,  and  abandoning 
tents,  baggage,  artillery,  ammunition,  the  remnants  of  each 
betook  themselves  to  panic-stricken  flight.  Generalissimo 
Maximilian  never  looked  behind  him  as  he  fled,  until  he  had 
taken  refuge  in  Kaschan,  and  had  thence  made  his  way, 
deeply  mortified  and  despondent,  to  Vienna.  The  Prince  of 
Transylvania  retreated  into  the  depths  of  his  own  prin¬ 
cipality.  Mahomet,  with  his  principal  officers,  shut  himself 


414 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXII. 


up  in  Buda,  after  which  he  returned  to  Constantinople  and 
abandoned  himself  for  a  time  to  a  voluptuous  ease,  incon¬ 
sistent  with  the  Ottoman  projects  of  conquering  the  world. 
The  Turks,  less  prone  to  desperation  than  the  Christians, 
had  been  utterly  overthrown  in  the  early  part  of  the  action, 
hut  when  the  victors  were,  as  usual,  greedily  bent  upon 
plunder  before  the  victory  had  been  fairly  secured,  the  tide 
of  battle  was  turned  by  the  famous  Italian  renegade  Cicala. 
The  Turks,  too,  ha3.  the  good  sense  to  send  two  days  after¬ 
wards  and  recover  their  artillery,  trains,  and  other  pro¬ 
perty,  which  ever  since  the  battle  had  been  left  at  the  mercy 
of  the  first  comers.76 

So  ended  the  Turkish  campaign  of  the  year  1596.77  Ancel, 
accordingly,  fared  ill  in  his  negotiations  with  Germany.  On 
the  other  hand  Mendoza,  Admiral  of  Arragon,  had  been 
industriously  but  secretly  canvassing  the  same  regions  as  the 
representative  of  the  Spanish  king.78  It  was  important  for 
Philip,  who  put  more  faith  in  the  league  of  the  three 
powers  than  Henry  himself  did,  to  lose  no  time  in  counter¬ 
acting  its  influence.  The  condition  of  the  holy  Roman 
empire  had  for  some  time  occupied  his  most  serious  thoughts. 
It  seemed  plain  that  Rudolph  would  never  marry.  Certainly 
he  would  never  marry  the  Infanta,  although  he  was  very 
angry  that  his  brother  should  aspire  to  the  hand  which  he 
himself  rejected.  In  case  of  his  death  without  children,  Philip 
thought  it  possible  that  there  might  be  a  Protestant  revolu¬ 
tion  in  Germany,  and  that  the  house  of  Habsburg  might  lose 
the  imperial  crown  altogether.  It  was  even  said  that  the 
emperor  himself  was  of  that  opinion,  and  preferred  that  the 
empire  should  end  with  his  own  life.79  Philip  considered80 
that  neither  Matthias  nor  Maximilian  was  fit  to  succeed 


76  De  Thou,  xii.  567-594,  1.  115. 
Meteren,  388.  Reyd,  297. 

77  Ibid.  78  Bor,  IV.  298. 

79  “Siendo  comun  opinion  en  Alema- 
nia  que  desea  que  con  su  muerte  se 
acabe  el  imperio  en  estas  partes.” — 
Relacion  de  lo  que  el  Almirante  de 
Aragon  ha  colegido  en  el  tiempo  que 


ha  estado  en  Alemana  y  en  la  corte 
Cesarea  tratando  con  personas  pruden- 
tes  cerca  el  nego  de  Rey  de  Romanos 
y  sucesion  a  los  estados  electivos  de 
Bohemia,  Moravia,  Silesia  y  Ungria. 
(Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 

80  Admiral  of  Arragon  to  Philip, 
17  Dec.  1596.  (Arch  de  Sim.  MS.) 


1596. 


PHILIP’S  INTERFERENCE  IN  GERMANY. 


415 


their  brother,  being  both  of  them  lukewarm  in  the  Catholic 
faith.81  In  other  words,  he  chose  that  his  destined  son-in-law, 
the  Cardinal  Albert,  should  supersede  them,  and  he  was 
anxious  to  have  him  appointed  as  soon  as  possible  King  of 
the  Romans. 

“  His  Holiness  the  Pope  and  the  King  of  Spain/1  said  the 
Admiral  of  Arragon,  u  think  it  necessary  to  apply  most 
stringent  measures  to  the  emperor  to  compel  him  to  appoint 
a  successor,  because,  in  case  of  his  death  without  one,  the 
administration  during  the  vacancy  would  fall  to  the  elector 
palatine,— a  most  perverse  Calvinistic  heretic,  and  as  great 
an  enemy  of  the  house  of  Austria  and  of  our  holy  religion  as 
the  Turk  himself— as  sufficiently  appears  in  those  diabolical 
laws  of  his  published  in  the  palatinate  a  few  months  since. 

A  vacancy  is  so  dreadful,  that  in  the  north  of  Germany  the 
world  would  come  to  an  end  ;  yet  the  emperor,  being  of 
rather  a  timid  nature  than  otherwise,  is  inclined  to  quiet, 
and  shrinks  from  the  discussions  and  conflicts  likely  to  be 
caused  by  an  appointment.  Therefore  his  Holiness  and  his 
Catholic  Majesty,  not  choosing  that  we  should  all  live  in 
danger  of  the  world's  falling  in  ruins,  have  resolved  to 
provide  the  remedy.  They  are  to  permit  the  electors  to  use 
the  faculty  which  they  possess  of  suspending  the  emperor 
and  depriving  him  of  his  power  ;  there  being  examples  of 
this  in  other  times  against  emperors  who  governed  ill.” 82 

The  Admiral  farther  alluded  to  the  great  effort  made  ' 
two  years  before  to  elect  the  King  of  Denmark  emperor, 
i  eminding  Philip  that  in  Hamburg  they  had  erected  triumphal 
arches,  and  made  other  preparations  to  receive  him.  This 
}  ear,  he  observed,  the  Protestants  were  renewing  their 
schemes.  On  the  occasion  of  the  baptism  of  the  child  of 
the  elector  palatine,  the  English  envoy  being  present,  and 
Queen  Elizabeth  being  god-mother,  they  had  agreed  upon 
nine  articles  of  faith  much  more  hostile  to  the  Catholic  creed 
than  anything  ever  yet  professed.  In  case  of  the  death  of 


81  Admiral  of  Arragon  to  Philip,  17  Dec.  1596.  (Arch,  de  Sim.  MS.) 

82  Relacion  del  Almirante  de  Aragon,  &c.,  ubi  sup. 


416 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


C114P.  XXXII. 


the  emperor,  this  elector  palatine  would  of  course  make 
much  trouble,  and  the  emperor  should  therefore  he  induced, 
by  fair  means  if  possible,  on  account  of  the  great  incon¬ 
venience  of  forcing  him,  but  not  without  a  hint  of  com¬ 
pulsion,  to  acquiesce  in  the  necessary  measures.  Philip  was 
represented  as  willing  to  assist  the  empire  with  considerable 
force  against,  the  Turk — as  there  could  be  no  doubt  that 
Hungary  was  in  great  danger — but  in.  recompense  it  was 
necessary  to  elect  a  King  of  the  Romans  in  all  respects 
satisfactory  to  him.  There  were  three  objections  to  the 
election  of  Albert,  whose  recent  victories  and  great  abilities 
entitled  him  in  Philip's  opinion  to  the  crown.  Firstly, 
there  was  a  doubt  whether  the  kingdoms  of  Hungary  and 
Bohemia  were  elective  or  hereditary,  and  it  was  very  im¬ 
portant  that  the  King  of  the  Romans  should  succeed  to  those 
two  crowns,  because  the  electors  and  other  princes  having 
fiefs  within  those  kingdoms  would  be  unwilling  to  swear 
fealty  to  two  suzerains,  and  as  Albert  was  younger  than  his 
brothers  he  could  scarcely  expect  to  take  by  inheritance. 

Secondly,  Albert  had  no  property  of  his  own,  but  the 
Admiral  suggested  that  the  emperor  might  be  made  to 
abandon  to  him  the  income  of  the  Tyrol. 

Thirdly,  it  was  undesirable  for  Albert  to  leave  the  Nether¬ 
lands  at  that  juncture.  Nevertheless,  it  was  suggested  by 
the  easy-going  Admiral,  with  the  same  tranquil  insolence 
which  marked  all  his  proposed  arrangements,  that  as  Rudolph 
would  retire  from  the  government  altogether,  Albert,  as  King 
of  the  Romans  and  acting  emperor,  could  very  well  take 
care  of  the  Netherlands  as  part  of  his  whole  realm.  Albert 
being  moreover  about  to  marry  the  Infanta,  the  handsome 
dowry  which  he  would  receive  with  her  from  the  king  would 
enable  him  to  sustain  his  ‘dignity.83 

Thus  did  Philip,  who  had  been  so  industrious  during  the 
many  past  years  in  his  endeavours  to  expel  the  heretic 
Queen  of  England  and  the  Huguenot  Henry  from  the  realms 

83  Relacion  del  Almirante,  ubi  sup.  Letter  of  tlie  Admiral,  17  Dec.  1596, 
last  cited.  . 


1596. 


HENRY’S  INTRIGUE  WITH  PHILIP. 


417 


of  tlieir  ancestors,  and  to  seat  himself  or  his  daughter,  or  one 
or  another  of  his  nephews,  in  their  places,  now  busy  himself 
with  schemes  to  discrown  Rudolph  of  Habsburg,  and  to  place 
i  he  ubiquitous  Infanta  and  her  future  husband  on  his  throne. 
Time  would  show  the  result. 

Meantime,  while  the  Protestant  Ancel  and  other  agents 
of  the  new  league  against  Philip  were  travelling  about  from 
one  court  of  Europe  to  another  to  gain  adherents  to  their 
cause,  the  great  founder  of  the  confederacy  was  already 
secretly  intriguing  for  a  peace  with  that  monarch.  The  ink 
was  scarce  dry  on  the  treaty  to  which  he  had  affixed  his 
signature  before  he  was  closeted  with  the  agents  of  the 
Archduke  Albert,  and  receiving  affectionate  messages  and 
splendid  presents  from  that  military  ecclesiastic. 

In  November,  1596,  La  Balvena,  formerly  a  gentleman  of 
the  Count  de  la  Fera,  came  to  Rouen.  He  had  a 
very  secret  interview  with  Henry  IY.  at  three  o’clock  N°v‘ 1596' 
one  morning,  and  soon  afterwards  at  a  very  late  hour  in  the 
night.  The  king  asked  him  why  the  archduke  was  not 
willing  to  make  a  general  peace,  including  England  and 
Holland.  Balvena  replied  that  he  had  no  authority  to  treat 
on  that  subject ;  it  being  well  known,  however,  that  the  King 
of  Spain  would  never  consent  to  a  peace  with  the  rebels 
except  on  the  ground  of  the  exclusive  maintenance  of  the 
Catholic  religion.84 

He  is  taking  the  very  course  to  destroy  that  religion,  said 
Henry.  The  king  then  avowed  himself  in  favour  of  peace 
for  the  sake  of  the  j)oor  afflicted  peojde  of  all  countries.  He 
was  not  tired  of  arms,  he  said,  which  were  so  familiar  to  him, 
but  his  wish  was  to  join-  in  a  general  crusade  against  the 
Turk.  This  would  he  better  for  the  Catholic  religion  than 
the  present  occupations  of  all  parties.  He  avowed  that  the 


84  Relacion  de  lo  que  ha  liecha  la 
Balvena,  November,  1596.  (Arch,  de 
Simancas  MS.) 

I  am  not  quite  sure  as  to  the  ortho¬ 
graphy  of  the  name  of  this  secret 
agent.  Van  Deventer,  ii.  141-146  prints 
it  Vulneve,  but  as  the  B  and  V  in  Span- 

vol.  hi. — 2  E 


ish  are  nearly  identical,  I  am  inclined 
to  prefer  the  name  given  in  the  text.  It 
is,  however,  difficult  to  ascertain  how 
obscurer  men  were  correctly  called  in 
days  when  grave  historians  could  de¬ 
signate  so  illustrious  a  personage  as 
Sir  Walter  Raleigh  as  Guateral. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXNII. 


418 


Queen  of  England  was  his  very  good  friend,  and  said  he  had 
never  yet  broken  his  faith  with  her,  and  never  would  do  so. 
She  had  sent  him  the  Garter,  and  he  had  accepted  it,  as 
his  brother  Henry  III.  had  done  before  him,  and  he  would 
negotiate  no  peace  which  did  not  include  her.85  The  not 
very  distant  future  was  to  show  how  much  these  stout  pro- 
fessions  of  sincerity  were  worth.  Meantime  Henry  charged 
Balvena  to  keep  their  interviews  a  profound  secret,  especially 
from  every  one  in  France.  The  king  expressed  great  anxiety 
lest  the  Huguenots  should  hear  of  it,  and  the  agent  observed 
that  any  suspicion  of  peace  negotiations  would  make  great 
disturbance  among  the  heretics,  as  one  of  the  conditions  of 
the  king’s  absolution  by  the  pope  was  supposed  to  he  that 
he  should  make  war  upon  his  Protestant  subjects.  On  his 
return  from  Rouen  the  emissary  made  a  visit  to  Monlevet, 
marshal  of  the  camp  to  Henry  IY.  and  a  Calvinist.  There 
was  much  conversation  about  peace,  in  the  course  of  which 
Monlevet  observed,  “  We  are  much  afraid  of  you  in  negotiation, 
for  we  know  that  you  Spaniards  far  surpass  us  in  astuteness.” 

“  Hay,”  said  Balvena,  “  I  will  only  repeat  the  words  of  the 
Emperor  Charles  Y. — ‘The  Spaniards  seem  wise,  and  are 
madmen  ;  the  French  seem  madmen,  and  are  wise.86 

A  few  weeks  later  the  archduke  sent  Balvena  again  to 
Rouen.  He  had  another  interview  with  the  king, 
Dec.  lo96.  ^  whiep  not  only  Yilleroy  and  other  Catholics  were 

present,  hut  Monlevet  also.  This  proved  a  great  obstacle  to 
freedom  of  conversation.  The  result  was  the  same  as  before. 
There  were  strong  professions  of  a  desire  on  the  part  of  the 
king  for  a  peace,  hut  it  was  for  a  general  peace  ;  nothing 
further. 

On  the  4th  December  Balvena  was  sent  for  by  the  king 
before  daylight,  just  as  he  was  mounting  his  horse  for  the 
chase. 

“  Tell  his  Highness,”  said  Henry,  “  that  I  am  all  frankness, 


85  2a  Relacion  que  Balvena  lia  hecha 
a  su  Alteza  volviendo  de  Francia.  De¬ 
cember,  1596.  (Archives  de  Simancas 
NS.) 


86  “  Los  Espanoles  parecen  sabios  y 
son  locos,  y  los  franceses  parecen  locos 
y  son  sabios.” 


1596. 


PHILIP’S  DESIGNS  AGAINST  ENGLAND. 


and  incapable  of  dissimulation,  and  that  I  believe  him  too 
much  a  man  of  honour  to  wish  to  deceive  me.  Go  tell  him 
that  I  am  most  anxious  for  peace,  and  that  X  deeply  regret 
the  defeat  that  has  been  sustained  against  the  Turk.  Had  I 
been  there  I  would  have  come  out  dead  or  victorious.  Let 
him  anange  an  agreement  between  us,  so  that  'presto  he  may 
see  me  there  with  my  brave  nobles,  with  infantry  and  with 
plenty  of  Switzers.  Tell  him  that  I  am  his  friend.  Begone. 
Be  diligent.”  87 

On  the  last  day  but  two  of  the  year,  the  archduke,  having 
heard  this  faithful  report  of  Henry’s  affectionate  29  Dec. 
sentiments,  sent  him  a  suit  of  splendid  armour,  1596. 
such  as  was  then  made  better  in  Antwerp  than  anywhere 
else,  magnificently  burnished  of  a  blue  colour,  according  to 
an  entirely  new  fashion.88 

With  such  secret  courtesies  between  his  most  Catholic 
Majesty’s  vicegerent  and  himself  was  Henry’s  league  with 
the  two  Protestant  powers  accompanied. 

Exactly  at  the  same  epoch  Philip  was  again  preparing  an 
invasion  of  the  queen’s  dominions.  An  armada  of  a  hundred 
and  twenty-eight  ships,  with  a  force  of  fourteen  thousand 
infantry  and  three  thousand  horse,  had  been  assembled 
during  the  autumn  of  this  year  at  Lisbon,  notwithstanding 
the  almost  crushing  blow  that  the  English  and  Hollanders 
had  dealt  the  king’s  navy  so  recently  at  Cadiz.89  This  new 
expedition  was  intended  for  Ireland,  where  it  was  supposed 
that  the  Catholics  would  be  easily  roused.  It  was  also 
hoped  that  the  King  of  Scots  might  be  induced  to  embrace 
this  opportunity  of  wreaking  vengeance  on  his  mother’s 
destroyer.  “He  was  on  the  watch  the  last  time  that  my 
armada  went  forth  against  the  English,”  said  Philip,  “  and 
he  has  now  no  reason  to  do  the  contrary,  especially  if  he 
remembers  that  here  is  a  chance  to  requite  the  cruelty  which 
was  practised  on  his  mother.”  90 


87  2a  Relacion,  &c, 

88  Albert  to  Philip,  29  Dec.  1596. 
(Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.)  “Armas 
buenas  de  las  que  se  labran  en  Anveres 


que  son  pabonadas  de  cierta  labor 
neuva .”  Compare  Reyd,  290. 

89  Philip  to  Albert,  4  October,  1596. 
(Arch,  de  Sim.  MS.)  90  Ibid. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXII. 


420 


The  fleet  sailed  on  tlie  5th  October  under  the  command  of 
5  0ct  the  Count  Santa  Gadea.  Its  immediate  destination 
1596. '  was  the  coast  of  Ireland,  where  they  were  to  find 
some  favourable  point  for  disembarking  the  troops.  Having 
accomplished  this,  the  ships,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  light 
vessels,  were  to  take  their  departure  and  pass  the  winter 
in  Ferrol.  In  case  the  fleet  should  be  forced  by  stress  of 
weather  on  the  English  coast,  the  port  of  Milford  Haven  in 
Wales  was  to  be  seized,  “  because,”  said  Philip,  “  there  are 
a  great  many  Catholics  there  well  affected  to  our  cause,  and 
who  have  a  special  enmity  to  the  English/'  In  case  the 
English  fleet  should  come  forth  to  give  battle,  Philip  sent 
directions  that  it  was  to  be  conquered  at  once,  and  that  after 
the  victory  Milford  Haven  was  to  be  firmly  held.91 

This  was  easily  said.  But  it  was  not  fated  that  this 
expedition  should  be  more  triumphant  than  that  of  the 
unconquerable  armada  which  had  been  so  signally  conquered 
eight  years  before.  Scarcely  had  the  fleet  put  to  sea  when 
it  was  overtaken  by  a  tremendous  storm,  in  which  forty  ships 
foundered  with  five  thousand  men.92  The  shattered  remnants 
took  refuge  in  Ferrol.  There  the  ships  were  to  refit,  and  in 
the  spring  the  attempt  was  to  be  renewed.  Thus  it  was  ever 
with  the  King  of  Spain.  There  was  a  placid  unconsciousness 
on  his  part  of  defeat  which  sycophants  thought  sublime.  And 
such  insensibility  might  have  been  sublimity  had  the  monarch 
been  in  person  on  the  deck  of  a  frigate  in  the  howling 
tempest,  seeing  ship  after  ship  go  down  before  his  eyes, 
and  exerting  himself  with  tranquil  energy  and  skill  to 
encourage  his  followers,  and  to  preserve  what  remained 
afloat  from  destruction.  Certainly  such  exhibitions  of  human 
superiority  to  the  elements  are  in  the  highest  degree  inspiring. 
His  father  had  shown  himself  on  more  than  one  occasion  the 
master  of  his  fate.  The  King  of  France,  too,  bare-headed,  in 
his  iron  corslet,  leading  a  forlorn  hope,  and,  by  the  personal 
charm  of  his  valour,  changing  fugitives  into  heroes  and  defeat 


91  Philip  to  Albert,  5  October,  1596.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS  ) 

92  Same  to  same,  31  December,  1596.  (Ibid.)  Reyd,  297.) 


1598. 


DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  SPANISH  FLEET. 


421 


into  victory,  had  afforded  many  examples  of  sublime  un¬ 
consciousness  of  disaster,  such  as  must  ever  thrill  the  souls 
of  mankind.  But  it  is  more  difficult  to  he  calm  in  battle  and 
shipwreck  than  at  the  writing  desk ;  nor  is  that  the  highest 
degree  of  fortitude  which  enables  a  monarch— himself  in 
safety— to  endure  without  flinching  the  destruction  of  his 
fellow  creatures. 

No  sooner,  however,  was  the  remnant  of  the  tempest-tost 
fleet  safe  in  Ferrol  than  the  king  requested  the  cardinal  to 
collect  an  army  at  Calais  and  forthwith  to  invade  England. 
He  asked  his  nephew  whether  he  could  not  manage  to  send 
his  troops  across  the  channel  in  vessels  of*  light  draught,  such 
as  he  already  had  at  command,  together  with  some  others 
which  might  be  furnished  him  from  Sjiain.  In  this  way  he 
v  as  diiected  to  gain  a  foot-hold  in  England,  and  he  was  to 
state  immediately  whether  he  could  accomplish  this  with  his 
own  resources,  or  should  require  the  assistance  of  the  fleet 
at  Ferrol.  The  king  further  suggested  that  the  enemy, 
encouraged  by  his  success  at  Cadiz  the  previous  summer,  * 
might  be  preparing  a  fresh  expedition  against  Spain,  in 
which  case  the  invasion  of  England  would  be  easier  to  ac¬ 
complish. 

Thus  on  the  last  day  of  1596,  Philip,  whose  fleet  sent 
forth  for  the  conquest  of  Ireland  and  England  had  been  too 
crippled  to  prosecute  the  adventure,  was  proposing  to  his 
nephew  to  conquer  England  without  any  fleet  at  all.  He 
had  given  the  same  advice  to  Alexander  Farnese  so  soon  as 
he  heaid  of  the  destruction  of  the  invincible  armada. 


422 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXIII. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 


Struggle  of  the  Netherlands  against  Spain  —  March  to  Turnhout  Retreat  o± 

the  Spanish  commander  —  Pursuit  and  attack  —  Demolition  of  the  Spanish 
army  —  Surrender  of  the  garrison  of  Turnhout  —  Improved  military  science 

—  Moral  effect  of  the  battle  — The  campaign  in  France  —  Attack  on 
Amiens  by  the  Spaniards  —  Sack  and  burning  of  the  city  —  De  Rosny’s 
plan  for  reorganization  of  the  finances — Jobbery  and  speculation  Philip  s 
repudiation  of  his  debts  —  Effects  of  the  measure  —  Renewal  of  persecution 
by  the  Jesuits  —  Contention  between  Turk  and  Christian  —  Envoy  from 
the  King  of  Poland  to  the  Hague  to  plead  for  reconciliation  with  Philip 

—  His  subsequent  presentation  to  Queen  Elizabeth  Military  events 
Recovery  of  Amiens  —  Feeble  operations  of  the  confederate  powers  against 
Spain  —  Marriage  of  the  Princess  Emilia,  sister  of  Maurice  —  Reduction  of 
the  castle  and  town  of  Alphen  —  Surrender  of  Rheinberg  —  Capitulation 
of  Meurs  —  Surrender  of  Grol  —  Storming  and  taking  of  Brevoort  — 
Capitulation  of  Enschede,  Ootmarsum,  Oldenzaal,  and  Lingen— Rebellion 
of  the  Spanish  garrisons  in  Antwerp  and  Ghent  —  Progress  of  the  peace 
movement  between  Henry  and  P hilip  —  Relations  of  the  three  confederate 
powers  —  Henry’s  scheme  for  reconciliation  with  Spain  —  Ilis  acceptance  ot 
Philip’s  offer  of  peace  announced  to  Elizabeth  —  Endeavours  for  a  general 
peace. 

The  old  year  had  closed  with  an  abortive  attempt  of  Philip 
to  fulfil  his  favourite  dream — the  conquest  of  England.  The 
new  year  opened  with  a  spirited  effort  of  Prince  Maurice  to 
measure  himself  in  the  open  field  with  the  veteran  legions  of 
Spain. 

Turnhout,  in  Brabant,  was  an  open  village — the  largest  in 
all  the  Netherlands — lying  about  twenty-five  English  miles 
in  almost  a  direct  line  south  from  Gertruydenburg.  It  was 
nearly  as  far  distant  in  an  easterly  direction  from  Antwerp, 
and  was  about  five  miles  nearer  Breda  than  it  was  to  Gertruy- 
denberg. 

At  this  place  the  cardinal-archduke  had  gathered  a  con¬ 
siderable  force,  numbering  at  least  four  thousand  of  his  best 
infantry,  with  several  squadrons  of  cavalry,  the  whole  under 


1597.  MARCH  TO  TURNHOUT.  423 

command  of  the  general-in-chief  of  artillery.  Count  Varax. 
People  in  the  neighbourhood  were  growing  uneasy,  for  it  was 
uncertain  in  what  direction  it  might  be  intended  to  use  this 
formidable  force.  It  was  perhaps  the  cardinal's  intention  to 
make  a  sudden  assault  upon  Breda,  the  governor  of  which 
seemed  not  inclined  to  carry  out  his  proposition  to  transfer 
that  important  city  to  the  king,  or  it  was  thought  that  he 
might  take  advantage  of  a  hard  frost  and  cross  the  frozen 
moiasses  and  estuaries  into  the  land  of  Ter  Tholen,  where  he 
might  overmaster  some  of  the  •  important  strongholds  of 
Zeeland. 

Marcellus  Bax,  that  boldest  and  most  brilliant  of  Holland's 
cavalry  officers,  had  come  to  Maurice  early  in  January  with 
an  urgent  suggestion  that  no  time  might  be  lost  in  making 
an  attack  upon  the  force  of  Turnliout,  before  they  should 
succeed  in  doing  any  mischief.  The  prince  pondered  the 
proposition,  for  a  little  time,  by  himself,  and  then  conferred 
very  privately  upon  the  subject  with  the  state-council.  On 
the  14th  January  it  was  agreed  with  that  body  that  the  enter¬ 
prise.  should  be  attempted,  but  with  the  utmost  secrecy.  A 
week  later  the  council  sent  an  express  messenger  to  Maurice 
urging  him  not  to  expose  his  own  life  to  peril,  but  to  apprise 
them  as  soon  as  possible  as  to  the  results  of  the  adventure. 

Meantime,  patents  had  been  sent  to  the  various  garrisons 
for  titty  companies  of  foot  and  sixteen  squadrons  of  22  Jan 
horse.  On  the  22nd  J anuary  Maurice  came  to  Ger-  1597. 
truydenberg,  the  place  of  rendezvous,  attended  by  Sir  Francis 
Vere  and  Count  Solms.  Colonel  Kloetingen  was  already 
there  with  the  transj3orts  of  ammunition  and  a  few  pieces  of 
artillery  from  Zeeland,  and  in  the  course  of  the  day  the  whole 
infantry  force  had  assembled.  Nothing  could  have  been 
managed  with  greater  promptness  or  secrecy. 

Next  day,  before  dawn,  the  march  began.  The  battalia 
was  led  by  Van  der  Noot,  with  six  companies  of  28  Jan 
Hollanders.  Then  came  Vere,  with  eight  companies  1597. 
of  the  reserve,  Dockray  with  eight  companies  of  Englishmen, 
Murray  with  eight  companies  of  Scotch,  and  Kloetingen  and 


424  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXIII. 

La  Corde  with  twelve  companies  of  Dutch  and  Zeelandeis. 
In  front  of  the  last  troop  under  La  Corde  marched  the  com¬ 
mander  of  the  artillery,  with  two  demi-cannon  and  two  field- 
pieces,  followed  by  the  ammunition  and  baggage  trains. 
Hohenlo  arrived  just  as  the  march  was  beginning,  to  whom 
the  stadholder,  notwithstanding  their  frequent  differences, 
communicated  his  plans,  and  entrusted  the  general  command 
of  the  cavalry.  That  force  met  the  expedition  at  Osterhout, 
a  league’s  distance  from  Gertruydenberg,  and  consisted  of  the 
best  mounted  companies,  English  and  Dutch,  from  the  gar¬ 
risons  of  Breda,  Bergen,  Nymegen,  and  the  Zutphen  districts. 

It  was  a  dismal,  drizzly,  foggy  morning  ;  the  weather 
changing  to  steady  rain  as  the  expedition  advanced.  There 
had  been  alternate  frost  and  thaw  for  the  few  previous  weeks, 
and  had  that  condition  of  the  atmosphere  continued  the 
adventure  could  not  have  been  attempted.  It  had  now  turned 
completely  to  thaw.  The  roads  were  all  under  water,  and  the 
march  was  sufficiently  difficult.  Nevertheless,*  it  was  possible ; 
so  the  stout  Hollanders,  Zeelanders,  and  Englishmen  struggled 
on  manfully,  shoulder  to  shoulder,  through  the  mist  and  the 
mire.  By  nightfall  the  expedition  had  reached  Ravels,  at 
less  than  a  league’s  distance  from  Turnhout,  having  accom¬ 
plished,  under  the  circumstances,  a  very  remarkable  march 
of  over  twenty  miles.  A  stream  of  water,  the  Neethe,  one  of 
the  tributaries  of  the  Scheld,  separated  Ravels  from  Turnhout, 
and  was  crossed  by  a  stone  bridge.  It  was  an  anxious  moment. 
Maurice  discovered  by  his  scouts  that  he  was  almost  within 
cannon-shot  of  several  of  the  most  famous  regiments  in  the 
Spanish  army  lying  fresh,  securely  posted,  and  capable  of 
making  an  attack  at  any  moment.  He  instantly  threw  for¬ 
ward  Marcellus  Bax  with  four  squadrons  of  Bergen  cavalry, 
who,  jaded  as  they  were  by  their  day’s  work,  w~ere  to  watch 
the  bridge  that  night,  and  to  hold  it  against  all  comers  and 
at  every  hazard. 

The  Spanish  commander,  on  his  part,  had  reconnoitred  the 
advancing  foe,  for  it  was  impossible  for  the  movement  to  have 
been  so  secret *or  so  swift  over  those  inundated  roads  as  to  be 


1597. 


RETREAT  OF  THE  GARRISON. 


425 


shrouded  to  the  last  moment  in  complete  mystery.  It  was 
naturally  to  he  expected  therefore  that  those  splendid  legions 

the  famous  Neapolitan  tercio  of  Trevico,  the  veteran  troops 
of  Sultz  and  Hachicourt,  the  picked  Epirote  and  Spanish 
cavalry  of  Nicolas  Basta  and  Guzman — would  be  hurled  upon 
the  wearied,  benumbed,  bemired  soldiers  of  the  republic,  as 
they  came  slowly  along  after  their  long  march  through  the 
cold  winter's  rain.  ’ 

Varax  took  no  such  heroic  resolution.  Had  he  done  so  that 
January  afternoon,  the  career  of  Maurice  of  Nassau  might 
have  been  brought  to  a  sudden  close,  despite  the  affectionate 
warning  of  the  state-council.  Certainly  it  was  difficult  for 
any  commander  to  be  placed  in  a  more  perilous  position  than 
that  in  which  the  stadholder  found  himself.  He  remained 
awake  and  afoot  the  whole  night,  perfecting  his  arrangements 
for  the  morning,  and  watching  every  indication  of  a  possible 
advance  on  the  part  of  the  enemy.  Marcellus  Bax  and  his 
troopers  remained  at  the  bridge  till  morning,  and  were  so 
near  the  Spaniards  that  they  heard  the  voices  of  their  pickets, 
and  could  even  distinguish  in  the  distance  the  various  move¬ 
ments  in  their  camp. 

But  no  attack  was  made,  and  the  little  army  of  Maurice 
was  allowed  to  sleep  off  its  fatigue.  With  the  dawn  of  the 
24th  January,  a  reconnoitring  party,  sent  out  from  24Jan 
the  republican  camp,  discovered  that  Yarax,  having  159?- 
no  stomach  for  an  encounter,  had  given  his  enemies  the  slip. 
Long  before  daylight  his  baggage  and  ammunition  trains  had 
been  sent  off  in  a  southerly  direction,  and  his  whole  force 
had  already  left  the  village  of  Turnhout.  It  wa§  the  inten¬ 
tion  of  the  commander  to  take  refuge  in  the  fortified  city  of 
Herenthals,  and  there  await  the  attack  of  Maurice.  Accord¬ 
ingly,  when  the  stadholder  arrived  on  the  fields  beyond  the 
immediate  precincts  of  the  village,  he  saw  the  last  of  the 
enemy's  rearguard  just  disappearing  from  view.  The  situation 
was  a  very  peculiar  one. 

The  rain  and  thaw,  following  upon  frosty  weather,  had  con¬ 
verted  the  fenny  country  in  many  directions  into  a  shallow 


426 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXIII. 


lake.  The  little  river  which  flowed  by  the  village  had  risen 
above  its  almost  level  banks,  and  could  with  difficulty  be 
traversed  at  any  point,  while  there  was  no  permanent  bridge, 
such  as  there  was  at  Ravels.  The  retreating  Spaniards  had 
made  their  way  through  a  narrow  passage,  where  a  roughly- 
constructed  causeway  of  planks  had  enabled  the  infantry  to 
cross  the  waters  almost  in  single  file,  while  the  cavalry  had 
floundered  through  as  best  they  might.  Those  who  were 
acquainted  with  the  country  reported  that  beyond  this  defile 
there  was  an  upland  heath,  a  league  in  extent,  full  of  furze 
and  thickets,  where  it  would  be  easy  enough  for  Yarax  to 
draw  up  his  army  in  battle  array,  and  conceal  it  from  view. 
Maurice's  scouts,  too,  brought  information  that  the  Spanish 
commander  had  left  a  force  of  musketeers  to  guard  the  pas¬ 
sage  at  the  farther  end. 

This  looked  very  like  an  ambush.  In  the  opinion  of 
Hohenlo,  of  Solms,  and  of  Sidney,  an  advance  was  not  to  be 
thought  of;  and  if  the  adventure  seemed  perilous  to  such 
hardy  and  experienced  campaigners  as  these  three,  the  stad- 
liolder  might  well  hesitate.  Nevertheless,  Maurice  had  made 
up  his  mind.  Sir  Francis  Yere  and  Marcellus  Bax  confirmed 
him  in  his  determination,  and  spoke  fiercely  of  the  disgrace 
which  would  come  upon  the  arms  of  the  republic  if  now, 
after  having  made  a  day's  march  to  meet  the  enemy,  they 
should  turn  their  backs  upon  him  just  as  he  was  doing  his 
best  to  escape. 

On  leave  obtained  from  the  prince,  these  two  champions, 
the  Englishman  and  the  Hollander,  spurred  their  horses 
through  tlier  narrow  pass,  with  the  waters  up  to  the  saddle-bow, 
at  the  head  of  a  mere  handful  of  troopers,  not  more  than  a 
dozen  men  in  all.  Two  hundred  musketeers  followed,  picking 
their  way  across  the  planks.  As  they  emerged  into  the  open 
country  beyond,  the  Spanish  soldiers  guarding  the  passage 
fled  without  firing  a  shot.  Such  was  already  the  discouraging 
effect  produced  upon  veterans  by  the  unexpected  order  given 
that  morning  to  retreat.  Yere  and  Bax  sent  word  for  all  the 
cavalry  to  advance  at  once,  and  meantime  hovered  about 


1597.  PURSUIT  OF  THE  FUGITIVES.  427 

the  rearguard  of  the  retreating  enemy,  ready  to  charge  upon 
him  so  soon  as  they  should  he  strong  enough. 

Maurice  lost  no  time  in  plunging  with  his  whole  mounted 
force  through  the  watery  defile  ;  directing  the  infantry  to 
follow  as  fast  as  practicable.  When  the  commander-in-chief 
with  his  eight  hundred  horsemen,  Englishmen,  Zeelandcrs, 
Hollanders,  and  Germans,  came  upon  the  heath,  the  position 
and  purpose  of  the  enemy  were  plainly  visible.  He  was  not 
drawn  up  in  battle  order,  waiting  to  sweep  down  upon  his 
rash  assailants  so  soon  as,  after  struggling  through  the  diffi¬ 
cult  pass,  they  should  be  delivered  into  his  hands.  On  the 
contrary,  it  was  obvious  at  a  glance  that  his  object  was  still 
to  escape.  The  heath  of  Tiel,  on  which  Spaniards,  Italians, 
Walloons,  Germans,  Dutchmen,  English,  Scotch,  and  Irish¬ 
men  now  all  found  themselves  together,  was  a  ridgy,  spongy 
expanse  of  country,  bordered  on  one  side  by  the  swollen  river, 
here  flowing  again  through  steeper  banks  which  were  over¬ 
grown  with  alders  and  pollard  willows.  Along  the  left  of  the 
Spanish  army,  as  they  moved  in  the  direction  of  Herenthals, 
was  a  continuous  fringe  of  scrub-oaks,  intermixed  with  tall 
beeches,  skirting  the  heath,  and  forming  a  leafless  but  almost 
impervious  screen  for  the  movements  of  small  detachments  of 
troops.  Quite  at  the  termination  of  the  open  space,  these 
thickets  becoming  closely  crowded,  overhung  another  ex¬ 
tremely  narrow  passage,  which  formed  the  only  outlet  from 
ihe  plain.  Thus  the  heath  of  Tiel,  upon  that  winter’s 
morning,  had  but  a  single  entrance  and  a  single  exit,  each 
very  dangerous  or  very  fortunate  for  those  capable  of  taking 
or  neglecting  the  advantages  offered  by  the  position. 

The  whole  force  of  Varax,  at  least  five  thousand  strong, 
was  advancing  in  close  marching  order  towards  the  narrow 
passage  by  which  only  they  could  emerge  from  the  heath. 
Should  they  reach  this  point  in  time,  and  thus  effect  their 
escape,  it  would  be  useless  to  attempt  to  follow  them,  fcfr,  as 
was  the  case  with  the  first  defile,  it  was  not  possible  for  two 
abreast  to  go  through,  while  beyond  was  a  swanrpy  country 
in  which  military  operations  were  impossible.  Yet  there 


423 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXIII. 


remained  less  than  half  a  league's  space  for  the  retreating 
soldiers  to  traverse,  while  not  a  single  foot-soldier  of  Maurice's 
army  had  thus  far  made  his  appearance  on  the  heath.  All 
were  still  wallowing  and  struggling,  single  file,  in  the  marshy 
entrance,  through  which  only  the  cavalry  had  forced  their 
way.  Here  was  a  dilemma.  Should  Maurice  look  calmly  on 
while  the  enemy,  whom  he  had  made  so  painful  a  forced 
march  to  meet,  moved  off  out  of  reach  before  his  eyes  ?  Yet 
certainly  this  was  no  slight  triumph  in  itself.  There  sat  the 
stadholder  on  his  horse  at  the  head  of  eight  hundred  cara¬ 
bineers,  and  there  marched  four  of  Philip's  best  infantry 
regiments,  garnished  with  some  of  his  most  renowned  cavalry 
squadrons,  anxious  not  to  seek  but  to  avoid  a  combat.  First 
came  the  Germans  of  Count  Suitz,  the  musketeers  in  front, 
and  the  spearsmen,  of  which  the  bulk  of  this  and  of  all  the 
regiments  was  composed,  marching  in  closely  serried  squares, 
with  the  company  standards  waving  over  each.  Next,  ar¬ 
ranged  in  the  same  manner,  came  the  Walloon  regiments  of 
Hachicourt  and  of  La  Barlotte.  Fourth  and  last  came  the 
famous  Neapolitans  of  Marquis  Trevico.  The  cavalry  squad¬ 
rons  rode  on  the  left  of  the  infantry,  and  were  commanded  by 
Nicolas  Basta,  a  man  who  had  been  trampling  upon  the 
Netherlanders  ever  since  the  days  of  Alva,  with  whom  he  had 
first  come  to  the  country. 

And  these  were  the  legions — these  very  men  or  their  im¬ 
mediate  predecessors — these  Italians,  Spaniards,  Germans, 
and  Walloons,  who  during  so  many  terrible  years  had  stormed 
and  sacked  almost  every  city  of  the  Netherlands,  and  swept 
over  the  whole  breadth  of  those  little  provinces  as  with  the 
besom  of  destruction. 

Both  infantry  and  cavalry,  that  picked  little  army  of  Yarax 
was  of  the  very  best  that  had  shared  in  the  devil's  work  which 
had  been  the  chief  industry  practised  for  so  long  in  the 
obedient  Netherlands.  Was  it  not  madness  for  the  stad¬ 
holder,  at  the  head  of  eight  hundred  horsemen,  to  assail  such 
an  army  as  this  ?  Was  it  not  to  invoke  upon  his  head  the 
swift  vengeance  of  Heaven  P  Nevertheless,  the  painstaking, 


1597. 


INTERCEPTION  AND  ATTACK. 


429 


cautions  Maurice  did  not  Hesitate.  He  ordered  Hohenlo,  with 
all  the  Brabantine  cavalry,  to  ride  as  rapidly  as  their  horses 
could  carry  them  along  the  edge  of  the  plain,  and  behind  the 
tangled  woodland,  by  which  the  movement  would  be  concealed. 
He  was  at  all  hazards  to  intercept  the  enemy’s  vanguard 
before  it  should  reach  the  fatal  pass.  Vere  and  Marcellus 
Bax  meanwhile,  supported  now  by  Edmont  with  the  Nymegen 
squadrons,  were  to  threaten  the  Spanish  rear.  A  company  of 
two  under  Laurentz  was  kept  by  Maurice  near  his  person 
in  reserve. 

The  Spaniards  steadily  continued  their  march,  but  as  they 
became  aware  of  certain  slight  and  indefinite  movements  on 
their  left,  their  cavalry,  changing  their  position,  were  trans¬ 
ferred  from  the  right  to  the  left  of  the  line  of  march,  and  now 
rode  between  the  infantry  and  the  belt  of  woods. 

In  a  few  minutes  after  the  orders  given  to  Hohenlo,  that 
dashing  soldier  had  circumvented  the  Spaniards,  and  emerged 
upon  the  plain  between  them  and  the  entrance  to  the  defile, 
The  next  instant  the  trumpets  sounded  a  charge,  and  Hohenlo 
fell  upon  the  foremost  regiment,  that  of  Sultz,  while  the 
rearguard,  consisting  of  Trevico’s  Neapolitan  regiment,  was 
assailed  by  Du  Bois,  Donck,  Rysoir,  Marcellus  Bax,  and  Sir 
Francis  Yere.  The  effect  seemed  almost  supernatural.  The 
Spanish  cavalry — those  far-famed  squadrons  of  Guzman  and 
Basta — broke  at  the  first  onset  and  galloped  off  for  the  pass 
as  if  they  had  been  riding  a  race.  Most  of  them  escaped 
through  the  hollow  into  the  morass  beyond.  The  musketeers 
of  Sultz’s  regiment  hardly  fired  a  shot,  and  fell  back  in  con¬ 
fusion  upon  the  thickly  clustered  pikemen.  The  assailants 
every  one  of  them  in  complete  armour,  on  powerful  horses,' 
and  armed  not  with  lances  but  with  carbines,  trampled  over 
the  panic-struck  and  struggling  masses  of  leather-jerkined 
pikemen  and  shot  them  at  arm’s  length.  The  charge  upon 
Trevico’s  men  at  the  same  moment  was  just  as  decisive.  In 
less  time  than  it  took  afterwards  to  describe  the  scene,  those 
renowned  veterans  were  broken  into  a  helpless  mass  of  dying, 
wounded,  or  fugitive  creatures,  incapable  of  striking  a  blow. 


V 


430  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXIII. 

Thus  the  Germans  in  the  front  and  the  Neapolitans  in  the 
rear  had  been  simultaneously  shattered,  and  rolled  together 
upon  the  two  other  regiments,  those  of  Hachicourt  and  La 
Barlotte,  which  were  placed  between  them.  Nor  did  these 
troops  offer  any  better  resistance,  hut  were  paralysed  and 
hurled  out  of  existence  like  the  rest.  In  less  than  an  hour 
the  Spanish  army  was  demolished.  Yarax  himself  lay  dead 
upon  the  field,  too  fortunate  not  to  survive  his  disgrace.  It 
was  hardly  more  than  daylight  on  that  dull  January  morning  ; 
nine  o’clock  had  scarce  chimed  from  the  old  brick  steeples  of 
Turnhout,  yet  two  thousand  Spaniards  had  fallen  before  the 
blows  of  eight  hundred  Netherlanders,  and  there  were  five 
hundred  prisoners  beside.  Of  Maurice’s  army  not  more  than 
nine  or  ten  were  slain.  The  story  sounds  like  a  wild  legend. 
It  was  as  if  the  arm  of  each  Netherlander  had  been  nerved 
by  the  memory  of  fifty  years  of  outrage,  as  if  the  spectre  of 
their  half-century  of  crime  had  appalled  the  soul  of  every 
Spaniard.  Like  a  thunderbolt  the  son  of  William  the  Silent 
smote  that  army  of  Philip,  and  in  an  instant  it  lay  blasted  on 
the  heath  of  Tiel.  At  least  it  could  hardly  be  called  saga¬ 
cious  generalship  on  the  part  of  the  stadholder.  The  chances 
were  all  against  him,  and  if  instead  of  Yarax  those  legions 
had  been  commanded  that  morning  by  old  Christopher 
Mondragon,  there  might  perhaps  have  been  another  tale  to 
tell.  Even  as  it  was,  there  had  been  a  supreme  moment 
when  the  Spanish  disaster  had  nearly  been  changed  to 
victory.  The  fight  was  almost  done,  when  a  small  party  of 
States’  cavalry,  who  at  the  beginning  of  the  action  had 
followed  the  enemy’s  horse  in  its  sudden  retreat  through  the 
gap,  came  whirling  back  over  the  plain  in  wild  confusion, 
pursued  by  about  forty  of  the  enemy’s  lancers.  They  swept 
by  the  spot  where  Maurice,  with  not  more  than  ten  horsemen 
around  him,  was  directing  and  watching  the  battle,  and  in 
vain  the  prince  threw  himself  in  front  of  them  and  strove  to 
check  their  flight.  They  were  panic-struck,  and  Maurice 
would  himself  have  been  swept  off  the  field,  had  not  Marcellus 
Bax  and  Edmont,  with  half  a  dozen  heavy  troopers,  come  to 


1597. 


VICTORY  OF  THE  NETHERLANDERS. 


431 


the  rescue.  A  grave  error  had  been  committed  by  Parker, 
who,  upon  being  ordered  by  Maurice  to  cause  Louis  Laurentz 
to  chaige,  bad  himself  charged  with  the  whole  reserve  and 
left  the  stadholder  almost  alone  upon  the  field.  Thus  the 
culprits— who  after  pursuing  the  Spanish  cavalry  through  the 
Pass  had  been  plundering  the  enemy’s  baggage  until  they 
were  set  upon  by  the  handful  left  to  guard  it,  and  had  become 
fugitives  in  their  turn— might  possibly  have  caused  the  loss 
of  the  day  after  the  victory  had  been  won,  had  there  been  a 
man  on  the  Spanish  side  to  take  in  the  situation  at  a  glance. 
But  it  is  probable  that  the  rout  had  been  too  absolute  to 
allow  of  any  such  sudden  turning  to  account  of  the  serious 
errors  of  the  victors.  The  cavalry,  except  this  handful,  had 
long  disappeared,  at  least  half  the  infantry  lay  dead  or 
w  ounded  in  the  field,  while  the  remainder,  throwing  away 

pipe  and  matchlock,  were  running  helter-skelter  for  their 
lives. 


Besides  Prince  Maurice  himself,  to  whom  the  chief  credit 
of  the  whole  expedition  justly  belonged,  nearly  all  the  com¬ 
manders  engaged  obtained  great  distinction  by  their  skill  and 
valour.  Sir  Francis  .  Vere,  as  usual,  was  ever  foremost  in  the 
thickest  of  the  fray,  and  had  a  horse  killed  under  him. 
Paiker  erred  by  too  much  readiness  to  engage,  hut  bore 
himself  manfully  throughout  the  battle.  Hohenlo,  Solms, 
Sidney,  Louis  Laurentz,  Du  Bois,  all  displayed  their  usual 
prowess  ;  hut  the  real  hero  of  the  hour,  the  personal  embodi¬ 
ment  of  the  fortunate  madness  which  prompted  and  won  the 
battle,  was  undoubtedly  Marcellus  Bax.1 

Maurice  remained  an  hour  or  two  on  the  field  of  battle, 
and  then,  returning  towards  the  village  of  Turnhout,  sum¬ 
moned  its  stronghold.  The  garrison  of  sixty,  under  Captain 
Van  der  Delf,  instantly  surrendered.  The  victor  allowed 


1  I  place  together  in  one  note  the 
authorities  used  by  me  for  this  famous 
action.  Not  an  incident  is  mentioned 
that  is  not  vouched  for  by  one  or  more 
of  the  contemporary  chronicles  or 
letter-writers  cited,  but  I  have  not 
thought  it  necessary  to  encumber  each 


paragraph  with  reference  to  a  footnote. 
Bor,  IV.  301-304.  Meteren,  393,  394 
Bentivoglio,  443,  444.  Reyd,  302,  seqq. 
Carnero,  402-407.  Coloma,  237,  Al¬ 
bert  to  Philip,  30  Jan.  1597.  (Arch, 
de  Simancas  MS.)  Van  der  Kemn 
ii.  25-29,  167-171. 


432 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXIII. 


these  troops  to  go  off  scot  free,  saying  that  there  had  been 
blood  enough  shed  that  day.  Every  standard  borne  by  the 
Spaniards  in  the  battle — thirty-eight  in  number — was  taken, 
besides  nearly  all  their  arms.  The  banners  were  sent  to  the 
Hague  to  be  hung  up  in  the  great  hall  of  the  castle.  The 
dead  body  of  Yarax  was  sent  to  the  archduke  with  a  cour¬ 
teous  letter,  in  which,  however,  a  categorical  explanation  was 

demanded  as  to  a  statement  in  circulation  that  Albert  had 

♦ 

decided  to  give  the  soldiers  of  the  republic  no  quarter.2 

No  answer  being  immediately  returned,  Maurice  ordered 
the  five  hundred  prisoners  to  be  hanged  or  drowned  unless 
ransomed  within  twenty  days,  and  this  horrible  decree  appears 
from  official  documents  to  be  consistent  with  the  military 
usages  of  the  period.  The  arrival  of  the  letter  from  the 
cardinal-archduke,  who  levied  the  money  for  the  ransom  on 
the  villagers  of  Brabant,3  prevented,  however,  the  execution 
of  the  menace,  which  could  hardly  have  been  seriously  in¬ 
tended.4 

Within  a  week  from  the  time  of  his  departure  from  the 
Hague  to  engage  in  this  daring  adventure,  the  stadholder  had 
returned  to  that  little  capital,  having  achieved  a  complete 


2  The  letter  of  Maurice  was  as  fol¬ 
lows  : — 

“  Sir — I  had  intended  to  send  the 
soldiers  who  were  taken  prisoners  yes¬ 
terday,  and  to  manifest  the  same  cour¬ 
tesy  which  I  am  accustomed  to  show 
towards  those  who  fall  into  my  hands. 
Rut  as  I  have  been  apprized  that  your 
Highness  has  published  an  order,  ac¬ 
cording  to  which  military  commanders 
are  forbidden  henceforth  to  give  quar¬ 
ter  to  those  of  this  side,  I  have  de¬ 
sired  first  to  have  this  doubt  made 
clear  to  me,  before  I  permit  them  to 
go  free,  in  order  that,  having  under¬ 
stood  your  Highness’s  intention  on 
this  point,  I  may  conduct  myself  as 
I  shall  find  most  fitting.  Herewith 
I  humbly  kiss  the  hands  of  your  High¬ 
ness,  and  pray  God  to  give  you  long 
and  healthy  life. 

“  Turnhout,  25  January.,  1597.” 

The  archduke  thus  replied  : — 

“  Count — I  have  received  your 
letter,  and  can  do  no  otherwise  than 


praise  the  courtesy  which  you  have 
manifested  towards  the  dead  body  of 
the  late  Count  Varax,  and  signify  to 
you  the  thanks  which  you  deserve,  and 
which  I  render  you  from  my  heart. 
Touching  the  other  point  you  will  not 
find  that  I  have  thus  far  resolved  on 
keeping  no  quarter,  and  I  hope  never 
to  have  occasion  for  such  a  determina¬ 
tion,  inasmuch  as  to  do  so  is  against  my 
nature.  And,  inasmuch  as  in  this  con¬ 
juncture  you  use  the  courtesy  towards 
me  which  you  signify  in  your  letter,  I 
shall  take  care  to  do  the  same  when 
occasions  present  themselves.  And 
herewith  I  pray  the  Creator  to  have 
you  in  his  holy  keeping. 

“  Your  good  friend, 

“  Albert,  Cardinal. 
“Brussels,  28  Jan.  1597.” 

8  Meteren,  b.  xix.  394. 

4  Ibid.  Van  der  Kemp,  28, 171,  who 
cites  Resol.  St.  Gen.  18  May,  1599,  for 
an  example. 


1597. 


MAGNITUDE  OF  THE  ACHIEVEMENT.  433 

success.  The  enthusiastic  demonstrations  throughout  the 
land  on  account  of  so  signal  a  victory  can  easily  be  imagined. 
Nothing  like  this  had  ever  before  been  recorded  in  the 
archives  of  the  young  commonwealth.  There  had  been 
glorious  defences  of  beleaguered  cities,  where  scenes  of  heroic 
endurance  and  self-sacrifice  had  been  enacted,  such  as  never 
can  be  forgotten  so  long  as  the  history  of  human  liberty  shall 
endure,  but  a  victory  won  in  the  open  field  over  the  most 
famous  legions  of  Spain  and  against  overwhelming  numbers, 
was  an  achievement  entirely  without  example.  It  is  beyond 
all  doubt  that  the  force  under  Yarax  was  at  least  four  times 
as  laige  as  that  portion  of  the  States’  army  which  alone  was 
engaged  ;  for  Maurice  had  not  a  foot-soldier  on  the  field  until 
the  battle  was  over,  save  the  handful  of  musketeers  who  had 
followed  Yere  and  Bax  at  the  beginning  of  the  action. 

Theiefoie  it  is  that  this  remarkable  action  merits  a  much 
more  attentive  consideration  than  it  might  deserve,  regarded 
purely  as  a  military  exploit.  To  the  military  student  a 
mere  cavalry  affair,  fought  out  upon  an  obscure  Brabantine 
heath  between  a  party  of  Dutch  carabineers  and  Spanish 
pikemen,  may  seem  of  little  account— a  subject  fitted  by  pic¬ 
turesque  costume  and  animated  action  for  the  pencil  of  a 
Wouvermanns  or  a  Terburg,  but  conveying  little  instruction. 
As  illustrating  a  period  of  transition  in  which  heavy  armoured 
troopers  each,  one  a  human  iron-clad  fortress  moving  at 
speed  and  furnished  with  the  most  formidable  portable  artil¬ 
lery  then  known— could  overcome  the  resistance  of  almost 
any  number  of  foot-soldiers  in  light  marching  gear  and 
armed  with  the  antiquated  pike,  the  affair  may  be  worthy  of 
a  moment’s  attention  ;  and  for  this  improvement — itself  now 
as  obsolete  as  the  slings  and  cataphracts  of  Roman  legions 
—the  world  was  indebted  to  Maurice.  But  the  shock  of 
mighty  armies,  the  manoeuvring  of  vast  masses  in  one  mag¬ 
nificent  .combination,  by  which  the  fate  of  empires,  the 
happiness  or  the  misery  of  the  peoples  for  generations,  may 
perhaps  be  decided  in  a  few  hours,  undoubtedly  require  a 
higher  constructive  genius  than  could  be  displayed  in  any 
vol.  hi. — 2  F 


434  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXIII. 

such,  hand-to-hand  encounter  as  that  of  Turnhout,  scientifi¬ 
cally  managed  as  it  unquestionably  was.  The  true  and 
abiding  interest  of  the  battle  is  derived  from  its  moral 
effect,  from  its  influence  on  the  people  of  the  Netherlands. 
And  this  could  scarcely  be*  exaggerated.  The  nation  was 
electrified,  transformed  in  an  instant.  Who  now  should 
henceforth  dare  to  say  that  one  Spanish  fighting-man  was 
equal  to  five  or  ten  Hollanders  ?  At  last  the  days  of  Jcm- 
mingen  and  Mooker-heatli  needed  no  longer  to  be  remem¬ 
bered  by  every  patriot  with  a  shudder  of  shame.  Heie  at 
least  in  the  open  field  a  Spanish  army,  aftei  in  vain  lefusing 
a  combat  and  endeavouring  to  escape,  had  literally  bitten  the 
dust  before  one  fourth  of  its  own  number.  And  this  effect 
was  a  permanent  one.  Thenceforth  for  foreign  powers  to 
talk  of  mediation  between  the  republic  and  the  ancient 
master,  to  suggest  schemes  of  reconciliation  and  of  a  return 
to  obedience,  was  to  offer  gratuitous  and  trivial  insult,  and  we 
shall  very  soon  have  occasion  to  mark  the  simple  eloquence 
with  which  the  thirty-eight  Spanish  standards  of  Turnliout, 
hung  up  in  the  old  hall  of  the  Hague,  were  made  to  reply  to 
the  pompous  rhetoric  of  an  interfering  ambassador. 

.  This  brief  episode  was  not  immediately  followed  by  other 
military  events  of  importance  in  the  provinces  during  what 
remained  of  the  winter.  Very  early  in  the  spring,  however, 
it  was  probable  that  the  campaign  might  open  simultaneously 
in  France  and  on  the  frontiers  of  Flanders.  Of  all  the  cities 
in  the  north  of  France  there  was  none,  after  Bouen,  so  im¬ 
portant,  so  populous,  so  wealthy  as  Amiens.  Situate  in 
fertile  fields,  within  three  days  march  of  Paris,  with  no  inter¬ 
vening  forests  or  other  impediments  of  a  physical  nature  to 
free  communication,  it  was  the  key  to  the  gates  of  the  capital. 
It  had  no  garrison,  for  the  population  numbered  fifteen 
thousand  men  able  to  bear  arms,  and  the  inhabitants  valued 
themselves  on  the  prowess  of  their  trained  militiamen,  five 
thousand  of  whom  they  boasted  to  be  able  to  bring  into 
the  field  at  an  hour's  notice — and  they  were  perfectly  loyal  to 
Henry. 


1597. 


ATTACK  AND  CAPTURE  OF  AMIENS.  435 

One  morning  in  March  there  came  a  party  of  peasants, 
fifteen  or  twenty  in  number,  laden  with  sacks  n  March 
of  chestnuts  and  walnuts,  to  the  northernmost  gate  1597- 
of  the  town.  They  offered  them  for  sale,  as  usual,  to  the 
soldiers  at  the  guard-house,  and  chaffered  and  jested— as  boors 
and  soldiers  are  wont  to  do — over  their  wares.  It  so  hap¬ 
pened  that  in  the  course  of  the  bargaining  one  of  the  hags 
became  untied,  and  its  contents,  much  to  the  dissatisfaction 
of  the  proprietor,  were  emptied  on  •  the  ground.  There  was  a 
scramble  for  the  walnuts,  and  much  shouting,  kicking,  and 
squabbling  ensued,  growing  almost  into  a  quarrel  between 
the  burgher-soldiers  and  the  peasants.”  As  the  altercation 
was  at  its  height  a  heavy  wagon,  laden  with  long  planks, 
came  towards  the  gate  for  the  use  of  carpenters  and  architects 
within  the  town.  The  portcullis  was  drawn  up  to  admit 
this  lumbering  vehicle,  but  in  the  confusion  caused  by  the 
chance  medley  going  on  at  the  guard-house,  the  gate  dropped 
again  before  the  wagon  had  fairly  got  through  the  passage, 

and  remained  resting  upon  the  timber  with  which  it  was 
piled. 

At  that  instant  a  shrill  whistle  was  heard,  and  as  if  by 
magic  the  twenty  chestnut-selling  peasants  were  suddenly 
tiansfoimed  to  Spanish  and  Walloon  soldiers  armed  to  the 
teeth,  who  were  presently  reinforced  by  as  many  more  of 
their  comrades,  who  sprang  from  beneath  the  plank- work  by 
which  the  real  contents  of  the  wagon  had  thus  been  screened. 
Captain  Dognano,  his  brother  the  sergeant-major,  Captain 
d  Arco,  and  other  officers  of  a  Walloon  regiment  stationed  in 
Dourlans,  were  the  leaders  of  the  little  party,  and  while  they 
were  busily  occupied  in  putting  the  soldiers  of  the  watch 
thus  taken  unawares,  to  death,  the  master-spirit  of  the  whole 
adventure  suddenly  made  his  appearance  and  entered  the 
city  at  the  *head  of  fifteen  hundred  men.  This  was  an  ex¬ 
tremely  small,  yellow,  dried  up,  energetic  Spanish  captain « 
with  a  long  red  beard,  Hernan  Tello  de  Porto  Carrero  by 
name,  governor  of  the  neighbouring  city  of  Dourlans,  who 

5  Coloma,  262. 


436  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXNIII. 

had  conceived  this  plan  for  obtaining  possession  of  Amiens. 
Having  sent  these  disguised  soldiers  on  before  him,  he  had 
passed  the  night  with  his  men  in  ambush  until  the  signal 
should  sound.  The  burghers  of  the  town  were  mostly  in 
church  ;  none  were  dreaming  of  an  attack,  as  men  rarely  do — 
for  otherwise  how  should  they  ever  be  surprised— and  in  half 
an  hour  Amiens  was  the  property  of  Philip  of  Spain.  There 
were  not  very  many  lives  lost,  for  the  resistance  was  small, 
but  great  numbers  were  tortured  for  ransom  and  few  women 
escaped  outrage.  The  sack  was  famous,  for  the  city  was  rich 
and  the  captors  were  few  in  number,  so  that  each  soldier 
had  two  or  three  houses  to  plunder  for  his  own  profit. 

.  When  the  work  was  done,  the  faubourgs  were  all  destroyed, 
for  it  was  the  intention  of  the  conquerors  to  occupy  the  place, 
which  would  be  a  most  convenient  basis  of  operations  for  any 
attack  upon  Paris,  and  it  was  desirable  to  contract  the  limits 
to  be  defended.  Fifteen  hundred  houses,  many  of  them 
beautiful  villas  surrounded  with  orchards  and  pleasure 
gardens,  were  soon  in  flames,  and  afterwards  razed  to 
the  ground.  The  governor  of  the  place,  Count  St.  Pol, 
managed  to  effect  his  escape.  His  place  was  now  supplied 
by  the  Marquis  of  Montenegro,  an  Italian  in  the  service  of 
the  Spanish  king.  Such  was  the  fate  of  Amiens  in  the 
month  of  March,  1597 6 ;  such  the  result  of  the  refusal  by  the 
citizens  to  accept  the  garrison  urged  upon  them  by  Henry. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  exaggerate  the  consternation  pro¬ 
duced  throughout  France  by  this  astounding  and  altogether 
unlooked  for  event.  “  It  seemed,”  said  President  De  Thou,  aas 
if  it  had  extinguished  in  a  moment  the  royal  majesty  and  the 
French  name.”  A  few  nights  later  than  the  date  of  this 
occurrence,  Maximilian  de  Bethune 7  (afterwards  Duke  of 
Sully,  but  then  called  Marquis  de  Rosny)  was  asleep  in 
his  bed  in. Paris.  He  had  returned,  at  past  two  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  from  a  magnificent  ball  given  by  the  Constable  ot 

Albert  to  Philip,  14  March,  1597. 
(Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 

7  De  Thou,  ubi  sup.  109. 


6  Bor,  IV.  814,  315.  Meteren,  395, 
398.  Bentivoglio,  447.  Coloma,  238- 
262.  De  Thou,  xiii.  103-109,  118. 


1597. 


CONSTERNATION  OF  THE  KING. 


437 


4  lance.  Jl he  capital  had  been  nncominoiily  brilliant  during 
the  winter  with  banquets  and  dances,  tournays  and  mas¬ 
querades,  as  if  to  cast  a  lurid  glare  over  the  unutterable 
miseiy  of  the  people  and  the  complete  desolation  of  the 
counti}  ,  but  this  entertainment — given  by  Montmorency  in 
honour  of  a.  fair  dame  with  whom  he  supposed  himself  des¬ 
perately  in  love,  the  young  bride  of  a  very  ancient  courtier- 
surpassed  in  splendour  every  festival  that  had  been  heard  of 
for  years.  De  Bethune  had  hardly  lost  himself  in  slumber 
when  he  was  startled  by  Beringen,  who,  on  drawing  his 
curtains  in  this  dead  hour  of  the  night,  presented  such  a 
ghastly  visage  that  the  faithful  friend  of  Henry  instantly 
imagined  some  personal  disaster  to  his  well-beloved  sovereign. 
“  Is  the  King  dead  ?  ”  he  cried.8 

Being  re-assured  as  to  this  point  and  told  to  hasten  to 
the  Louvre,  Rosny  instantly  complied  with  the  command. 
When  he  reached  the  palace  he  was  admitted  at  once  to  the 
royal  bed-chamber,  where  he  found  the  king  in  the  most 
unsophisticated  of  costumes,  striding  up  and  down  the  room, 
with  his  hands  clasped  together  behind  his  head,  and  with  an 
expression  of  agony  upon  his  face.  Many  courtiers  were 
assembled  there,  stuck  all  of  them  like  images  against  the 
wall,  staring  before  them  in  helpless  perplexity.9 

Henry  rushed  forward  as  Rosny  entered,  and  wringing  him 
by  the  hand,  exclaimed,  ee  Ah,  my  friend,  what  a  misfortune, 
Amiens  is  taken  !  ” 

U  Wry  well,”  replied  the  financier,  with  unperturbed 
visage  ,  (iI  have  just  completed  a  plan  which  will  restore  to 
your  Majesty  not  only  Amiens  but  many  other  places.” 

The  king  drew  a  great  sigh  of  relief  and  asked  for  his 
project.  Rosny,  saying  that  he  would  instantly  go  and  fetch 
his  papers,  left  the  apartment  for  an  interval,  in  order  to  give 
vent  to  the  horrible  agitation  which  he  had  been  enduring 
and  so  bravely  concealing  ever  since  the  fatal  words  had  been 
spoken.  That  a  city  so  important,  the  key  to  Paris,  without 
a  moment's  warning,  without  the  semblance  of  a  siege,  should 

8  Sully,  Memoires,  i.  484,  segq. 


9  Ibid. 


433  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXIII. 

thus  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  was  a  blow  as  directly 
to  the  heart  of  De  Bethune  as  it  could  have  been  to  any  other 

V 

of  Henry's  adherents.  But  while  they  had  been  distracting 
the  king  by  unavailing  curses  or  wailings,  Henry,  who  had 
received  the  intelligence  just  as  he  was  getting  into  bed,  had 
sent  for  support  and  consolation  to  the  tried  friend  of  years, 
and  he  now  reproachfully  contrasted  their  pusillanimity  with 
De  Rosny's  fortitude. 

A  great  plan  for  reorganising  the  finances  of  the  kingdom 
was  that  very  night  submitted  by  Rosny  to  the  king,  and  it 
was  wrought  upon  day  by  day  thereafter  until  it  was  carried 
into  effect. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  the  crudities  and  immoralities 
which  the  project  revealed  do  not  inspire  the  political  student 
of  modern  days  with  so  high  a  conception  of  the  financial 
genius  of  the  great  minister  as  his  calm  and  heroic  deport¬ 
ment  on  trying  occasions,  whether  on  the  battle-field  or  in 
the  council-chamber,  does  of  his  natural  authority  over  his 
fellow-men.  The  scheme  was  devised  to  put  money  in  the 
king's  coffers,  which  at  that  moment  were  completely  empty. 
Its  chief  features  were  to  create  a  great  many  new  offices  in 
the  various  courts  of  justice  and  tribunals  of  administration, 
all  to  be  disposed  of  by  sale  to  the  highest  bidder  ;  to  extort 
a  considerable  loan  from  the  chief  courtiers  and  from  the 
richest  burghers  in  the  principal  towns  ;  to  compel  all  the 
leading  peculators — whose  name  in  the  public  service  was 
legion — to  disgorge  a  portion  of  their  ill-gotten  gains,  on 
being  released  from  prosecution  ;  and  to  increase  the  tax 
upon  salt.10 

Such  a  project  hardly  seems  a  masterpiece  of  ethics  or 
political  economy,  but  it  was  hailed  with  rapture  by  the 
needy  monarch.  At  once  there  was  a  wild  excitement  amongst 
the  jobbers  and  speculators  in  places.  The  creation  of 
an  indefinite  number  of  new  judgeships  and  magistracies, 
to  be  disposed  of  at  auction,  was  a  tempting  opportunity 
even  in  that  age  of  corruption.  One  of  the  most  notorious 

10  Sully,  Memoires,  i.  lib.  ix.  p.  485,  segq. 


1597. 


JOBBERY  AND  SPECULATION. 


439 


traders  in  the  judicial  ermine,  limping  Robin  de  Tours  by 
name,  at  once  made  a  private  visit  to  Madame  de  Rosny 
and  offered  seventy-two  thousand  crowns  for  the  exclusive 
right  to  distribute  these  new  offices.  If  this  could  be 
managed  to  his  satisfaction,  he  promised  to  give  her  a 
diamond  worth  two  thousand  crowns,  and  another,  worth  six 
thousand,  to  her  husband.  The  wife  of  the  great  minister, 
who  did  not  comprehend  the  whole  amount  of  the  insult, 
presented  Robin  to  her  husband.  She  was  enlightened, 
however,  as  to  the  barefaced  iniquity  of  the  offer,  when  she 
heard  De  Bethune's  indignant  reply,  and  saw  the  jobber  limp 
away,  crest-fallen  and  amazed.  That  a  financier  or  a  magis¬ 
trate  should  decline  a  bribe  or  interfere  with  the  private  sale 
of  places,  which  were  after  all  objects  of  merchandise,  was  to 
him  incomprehensible.  The  industrious  Robin,  accordingly, 
recovering  from  his  discomfiture,  went  straightway  to  the 
chancellor,  and  concluded  the  same  bargain  in  the  council 
chamber  which  had  been  rejected  by  De  Bethune,  with  the 
slight  difference  that  the  distribution  of  the  places  was 
assigned  to  the  speculator  for  seventy-five  thousand  instead 
of  seventy-two  thousand  crowns.  It  was  with  great  difficulty 
that  De  Bethune,  who  went  at  once  to  the  king  with  com-  ' 
plaints  and  insinuations  as  to  the  cleanness  of  the  chancellor's 
hands,  was  able  to  cancel  the  operation.11  The  day  was  fast 
approaching  when  the  universal  impoverishment  of  the  great 
nobles  and  landholders — the  result  of  the  long,  hideous, 
senseless  massacres  called  the  wars  of  religion — was  to 
open  the  way  for  the  labouring  classes  to  acquire  a  pro¬ 
perty  in  the  soil.  Thus  that  famous  fowl  in  every  pot  was  to 
make  its  appearance,  which  vulgar  tradition  ascribes  to  the 
bounty  of  a  king  who  hated  everything  like  popular  rights, 
and  loved  nothing  but  his  own  glory  and  his  own  amusement. 
It  was  not  until  the  days  of  his  grandchildren  and  great¬ 
grandchildren  that  Privilege  could  renew  those  horrible 
outrages  on  the  People,  which  were  to  be  avenged  by  a 
dread  series  of  wars,  massacres,  and  crimes, .  compared  to 

11  Sully,  Memoires,  i.  lib.  ix.  p.  490. 


440 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXIII. 


which  even  the  religious  conflicts  of  the  sixteenth  century 
grow  pale. 

Meantime  De  Bethune  comforted  his  master  with  these 
financial  plans,  and  assured  him  in  the  spirit  of  prophecy  that 
the  King  of  Spain,  now  tottering  as  it  was  thought  to  his 
grave,  would  soon  be  glad  to  make  a  favourable  peace  with 
France,  even  if  he  felt  obliged  to  restore  not  only  Amiens  hut 
every  other  city  or  stronghold  that  he  had  ever  conquered  in 
that  kingdom.  Time  would  soon  show  whether  this  predic¬ 
tion  were  correct  or  delusive  ;  but  while  the  secret  negotiations 
between  Henry  and  the  Pope  were  vigorously  proceeding  for 
that  peace  with  Spain  which  the  world  in  general  and  the 
commonwealth  of  the  Netherlands  in  particular  thought  to 
be  farthest  from  the  warlike  king’s  wishes,  it  was  necessary 
to  set  about  the  siege  of  Amiens. 

Henry  assembled  a  force  of  some  twelve  or  fifteen  thousand 
men  for  that  purpose,  while  the  cardinal-archduke,  upon  his 
part,  did  his  best  to  put  an  army  in  the  field  in  order  to 
relieve  the  threatened  city  so  recently  acquired  by  a  coarse 
but  successful  artifice. 

But  Albert  was  in  even  a  worse  plight  than  that  in  which 
his  great  antagonist  found  himself.  When  he  had  first 
arrived  in  the  provinces,  his  exchequer  was  overflowing,  and 
he  was  even  supposed  to  devote  a  considerable  portion  of  the 
military  funds  to  defray  the  expenses  of  his  magnificent 
housekeeping  at  Brussels.12  But  those  halcyon  days  were 
over.  A  gigantic  fraud,  just  perpetrated  by  Philip,  had 
descended  like  a  thunderbolt  upon  the  provinces  and  upon  all 
commercial  Europe,  and  had  utterly  blasted  the  unfortunate 
viceroy.  In  the  latter  days  of  the  preceding  year  the  king 
had  issued  a  general  repudiation  of  his  debts. 

He  did  it  solemnly,  too,  and  with  great  religious  unction, 
for  it  was  a  peculiarity  of  this  remarkable  sovereign  that  he 


12  “Non  possiede  1’  amore  di  quei 
popoli  qnanto  bisognerebbe,  oltrecche 
lia  nome  di  non  favorir  molto  la  solda- 
tesca  e  di  gettar  gran  parte  di  denaro 
cbe  doverebbe  esser  distribuito  alle 
milizje  in  quelli  della  sua  propria  casa 


e  nel  sostentarla  propria  albagia.  Da 
clie  nasce  poi  cbe  si  veggono  tante  sol- 
levazioni  e  le  cose  di  quella  guerra 
prendono  sempre  peggior  piega.” — 
Soranzo.  Relazionc,  before  cited,  p. 
168. 


1597. 


PHILIP’S  REPUDIATION  OF  HIS  DEBTS. 


441 


was  ever  wonl  to  accomplish  his  darkest  crimes,  whether 
murders  or  stratagems,  as  if  they  were  acts  of  virtue.  Perhaps 
he  really  believed  them  to  he  such,  for  a  man,  before  whom 
so  many  millions  of  his  fellow  worms  had  been  writhing  for 

half  a  century  in  the  dust,  might  well  imagine  himself  a 
deity. 


So  the  king,  on  the  20th  November,  1596,  had  publicly 
revoked  all  the  assignments,  mortgages,  and  other  deeds 
by  which  the  royal  domains,  revenues,  taxes,  and  other 
public  property  had  been  transferred  or  pledged  for  moneys 
aheady  advanced  to  merchants,  bankers,  and  other  companies 
oi  individuals,  and  formally  took  them  again  into  his  own 
possession,  on  the  ground  that  his  exertions  in  carrying  on 
this  long  war  to  save  Christianity  from  destruction  had  re¬ 
duced  him  to  beggary,  while  the  money-lenders,  by  charging 
him  exoibitant  interest,  had  all  grown  rich  at  his  expense.13 


13  “Whereas  it  has  come  to  our 
knowledge,”  so  ran  this  famous  pro¬ 
clamation  of  repudiation  in  its  prin¬ 
cipal  paragraphs,  “that  notwithstand¬ 
ing  all  which  our  royal  incomes  from 
this  monarchy  and  from  without  have 
yielded ;  together  with  the  assistance 
rendered  to  us  by  his  Holiness  to  main¬ 
tain  the  war  against  the  English,  and 
to  protect  the  Catholic  religion,  and 
with  the  steady  burthens  borne  for  this 
object  by  the  subjects  and  vassals  of 
the  crown,  according  to  their  ancient 
and  great  fidelity ;  and  besides  the 
great  abundance  of  the  gold  and  silver 
produced  by  our  Indies  ;  likewise  all 
that  has  come  from  the  sums  furnished 
by  the  farmers  of  our  finances  and 
revenues,  we  find  ourselves  now  so 
wholly  exhausted  and  ruined,  and  our 
royal  inherited  estates  so  diminished, 
and  as  it  were  reduced  to  nothing’ 
that,  although  the  foremost  cause  of 
this  ruin  is  the  great  and  incredible 
expense  which  we  have  sustained  and 
are  still  enduring  for  the  protection  of 
Christendom,  of  our  kingdom  and  do¬ 
mains  ;  other  chief  causes  are  the 
grievous  damages,  discounts,  and  in¬ 
terest  which  have  been  forced  upon 
us,  and  which  at  present  obtain  in 
the  finances,  bills  of  exchange,  and 
other  obligations,  which  have  been  I 


made  and  taken  up  m  our  name,  since 
we  could  not  escape  the  same  in  order 
to  be  able  to  provide  for  our  so  en¬ 
tirely  necessary  and  pressing  necessi¬ 
ties.  Thus  all  our  domains,  taxes,  re¬ 
venues,  and  all  ordinary  and  extraor¬ 
dinary  resources  stand,  burtliened  and 
covered  with  obligations  in  the  hands 
of  merchants.  And  what  is  most  op¬ 
pressive,  our  affairs  are  come  to  extre¬ 
mities  through  our  having  no  means 
by  which  we  might  help  ourselves,  nor 
do  we  know  of  any  other  resources  that 
we  can  make  use  of.  And  now  the 
said  merchants,  who  hitherto  hkve 
given  on  bills  of  exchange  such  monies 
as  were  necessary  to  provide  for  the 
protection  of  our  royal  state  and  to 
carry  on  the  war  which  we  are  waging 
forthese  righteous  and  special  reason^ 
refuse  to  do  this  any  longer,  and  make 
difficulties  in  further  dealing  with  us, 
seeing  that  they  have  in  their  own 
hands  and  power  all  the  royal  reve¬ 
nues  by  means  of  the  said  pledges,  cer¬ 
tificates,  and  transfers,  and  hereby 
such  embarrassments  arise  that  if  they 
are  not  provided  against,  it  would  be 
enough  to  put  in  hazard  all  that  which 
God  the  Lordhas  so  highly  commanded 
us  to  perform,  namely,  the  protection 
and  maintenance  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  of  our  subjects  and  vassals. 


442 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXIII. 


This  was  perfectly  simple.  There  was  no  attempt  to  dis¬ 
guise  the  villany  of  the  transaction.  The  massacre  of  so 
many  millions  of  Protestants,  the  gigantic  hut  puerile 
attempts  to  subjugate  the  Dutch  republic,  and  to  annex 
France,  England,  and  the  German  empire  to  his  hereditary 
dominions,  had  been  attended  with  more  expense  than  Philip 
had  calculated  upon.  The  enormous  wealth  which  a  long 
series  of  marriages,  inheritances,  conquests,  and  maritime  dis¬ 
coveries  had  heaped  upon  Spain  had  been  exhausted  by  the 
insane  ambition  of  the  king  to  exterminate  heresy  throughout 
the  world,  and  to  make  himself  the  sovereign  of  one  undi¬ 
vided,  universal,  catholic  monarchy.  All  the  gold  and  silver 
of  America  had  not  sufficed  for  this  purpose,  and  he  had  seen, 
with  an  ever  rising  indignation,  those  very  precious  metals 


and  all  those  who  dwell  under  our 
government.  .... 

“Therefore  to  put  an  end  to  such 
financiering  and  unhallowed  practices 
with  hills  of  exchange  which  have  been 
introduced  and  have  spread  abroad 
among  so  many  people,  who  in  order 
to  followsuchpursuits have  abandoned 
agriculture,  cattle-raising,  and  mecha¬ 
nical  works,  and  embarked  in  trade, 
finding  therein  gain  and  profit  to  the 
disservice  of  the  Lord  God  and  of  us, 
with  great  injury,  to  our  kingdom.  . 
.  .  .  and  which  have  brought  great 

masses  of  coin  and  species  to  flow  out 
of  India  (i.  e.  America)  into  the  king¬ 
doms  and  lands  of  the  rebels  and  foes 
of  Christianity  and  of  us,  enabling 
them  to  keep  every  thing  in  commo¬ 
tion,  so  that  we  are  compelled  to  in¬ 
crease  our  armaments  and  our  forces, 
and  to  incur  more  expenses.  We  have 
now  given  command  to  devise  some 
means  of  restoring  order,  and  of  ac¬ 
complishing  in  the  best  possible  way 
that  which  we  are  so  highly  and  legally 
bound  to  do,  whereupon  hang  the  pro¬ 
tection  of  Christendom  and  the  secu¬ 
rity  of  our  realms  ;  and  we  have  found 
no  other  remedy  than  to  call  in  and  to 
disburtlien  our  royal  incomes,  liberat¬ 
ing  the  same  from  the  unjust  damage 
put  upon  them  through  this  financier¬ 
ing  and  bills  of  exchange,  which  we 
have  suffered  and  are  continuing  to  suf¬ 
fer  at  the  time  we  made  such  contracts, 


in  order  to  avoid  still  greater  embarrass¬ 
ments  that  would  have  arisen  had 
there  been  want  of  provision  for  our 

military  affairs . Having 

decided  to  cancel  and  annihilate  all 
the  aforesaid  interests  and  impositions, 
we  shall  afterwards  meditate  upon 
ways  and  means  by  which  may  be 
paid  to  the  merchants  and  traders  what 
may  seem  to  us  properly  due  to  them 
in  regard  to  these  contracts,  transfers, 
and  assignments . Accord¬ 

ingly  we  suspend  and  declare  sus¬ 
pended  all  such  assignations  made  by 
us  in  any  manner  whatsoever  since 
Sept.  1, 1575,  and  Dec.  1, 1577,  unto  this 
date,  to  the  said  merchants  and  traders, 
whether  of  taxes,  gifts,  domains,  rents, 
or  any  other  property  or  revenues  what¬ 
soever,  on  account  of  such  bills  of  ex¬ 
change  or  other  advances.  And  we 
order  the  monies  coming  from  such 
pledged  property  to  be  henceforth 
paid  into  our  royal  treasury,  for  the 
support  of  our  own  necessities,  de¬ 
claring  from  this  day  forth  all  pave¬ 
ments  otherwise  made  to  be  null  and 
void. 

“  20  November,  1596.” 

Bor,  III.  318,  319.  Herrera,  iii.  711, 
seqg.  Compare  Reyd,  301,  302.  Mo- 
teren,  388-391.  It  was  found  necessary 
after  the  expiration  of  a  year  to  revoke 
these  orders,  as  the  usual  consequences 
of  repudiation  followed. 


1597. 


EFFECTS  OF  PHILIP’S  ACT. 


443 


which,  in  his  ignorance  of  the  laws  of  trade,  he  considered 
his  exclusive  property  flowing  speedily  into  the  coffers  of  the 
merchants-  of  Europe,  especially  those  of  the  hated  common¬ 
wealth  of  the  rebellious  Netherlands. 

Therefore  he  solemnly  renounced  all  his  contracts,  and 
took  God  to  witness  that  it  wTas  to  serve  His  Divine  will.14 
How  else  could  he  hope  to  continue  his  massacre,  of  the 
Protestants  ? 

The  effect  of  the  promulgation  of  this  measure  was  instan¬ 
taneous.  Two  millions  and  a  half  of  bills  of  exchange  sold  by 
the  Cardinal  Albert  came  back  in  one  day  protested.  The 
chief  merchants  and  bankers  of  Europe  suspended  payment. 
Their  creditors  became  bankrupt.  At  the  Frankfort  fair 
there  wrere  more  failures  in  one  day  than  there  had  ever 
been  in  all  the  years  since  Frankfort  existed.15  In  Genoa 
alone  a  million  dollars  of  interest  were  confiscated.16  It  was 
no  better  in  Antwerp ;  but  Antwerp  was  already  ruined. 
There  was  a  general  howl  of  indignation  and  despair  upon 
every  exchange,  in  every  counting-room,  hi  every  palace, 
in  every  cottage  of  Christendom.  Such  a  tremendous  repudia¬ 
tion  of  national  debts  was  never  heard  of  before.  There  had 
been  debasements  of  the  currency,  petty  frauds  by  kings  upon 
their  unfortunate  peoples,  but  such  a  crime  as  this  had  never 
been  conceived  by  human  heart  before. 

The  archduke  was  fain  to  pawn  his  jewelry,  his  plate,  his 
furniture,  to  support  the  daily  expenses  of  his  household. 
Meantime  he  was  to  set  an  army  in  the  field  to  relieve  a  city, 
beleaguered  by  the  most  warlike  monarch  in  Christendom. 
Fortunately  for  him,  that  prince  was  in  very  similar  straits, 
for  the  pressure  upon  the  public  swindlers  and  the  auction 
sales  of  judicial  ermine  throughout  his  kingdom  were  not  as 
rapidly  productive  as  had  been  hoped. 

It  was  precisely  at  this  moment,  too,  that  an  incident  of 
another  nature  occurred  in  Antwerp,  which  did  not  tend 
to  make  the  believers  in  the  possibility  of  religious  or 


14  Bor,  Herrera,  ubi  sup. 


15  Bor,  Reyd,  ubi  sup. 


16  Ibid. 


444 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXIII. 


political  freedom  more  in  love  with  the  system  of  Spain  and 
Rome.  Those  blood-dripping  edicts  against  heresy  in  the 
Netherlands,  of  which  enough  has  been  said  in  previous 
volumes  of  this  history,  and  which  had  caused  the  deaths,  by 
axe,  fagkot,  halter,  or  burial  alive,  of  at  least  fifty  thousand 
human  creatures — however  historical  scepticism  may  shut  ^ 
its  eyes  to  evidence — had  now  been  dormant  for  twenty 
years.  Their  activity  had  ceased  with  the  pacification  of 
Ghent ;  but  the  devilish  spirit  which  had  inspired  them  still 
lived  in  the  persons  of  the  Jesuits,  and  there  were  now  more 
Jesuits  in  the  obedient  provinces  than  there  had  been  for 
years.  We  have  seen  that  Champagny’s  remedy  for  the  ills 
the  country  was  enduring  was  “  more  Jesuits/'  And  this, 
too,  was  Albert's  recipe.  Always  more  Jesuits.17  And  now 
the  time  had  come  when  the  J esuits  thought  that  they  might 
step  openly  with  their  works  into  the  daylight  again.  Of  late 
years  they  had  shrouded  themselves  in  comparative  mystery, 
but  from  their  seminaries  and  colleges  had  gone  forth  a 
plentiful  company  of  assassins  against  Elizabeth  and  Henry, 
Nassau,  Barneveld,  and  others  who,  whether  avowedly  or 
involuntarily,  were  prominent  in  the  party  of  human  progress. 

Some  important  murders  had  already  been  accomplished,  and 
the  prospect  was  fair  that  still  others  might  follow,  if  the 
Jesuits  persevered.  Meantime  those  ecclesiastics  thought 
that  a  wholesome  example  might  be  set  to  humbler  heretics  * 
by  the  spectacle  of  a  public  execution. 

Two  maiden  ladies  lived  on  the  north  rampart  of  Antwerp. 

They  had  formerly  professed  the  Protestant  religion,  and  had 
been  thrown  into  prison  for  that  crime  ;  but  the  fear  of 
further  persecution,  human  weakness,  or  perhaps  sincere 
conviction,  had  caused  them  to  renounce  the  error  of  their 
ways,  and  they  now  went  to  mass.  But  they  had  a  maid¬ 
servant,  forty  years  of  age,  Anna  van  den  Hove  by  name, 
who  was  staunch  in  that  reformed  faith  in  which  she  had 
been  born  and  bred.  The  Jesuits  denounced  this  maid- 


17  Albert  to  Philip,  3  May,  1593.  (Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.) 


1597. 


PERSECUTION  OF  ANNA  VAN  DEN  HOVE. 


445 


servant  to  the  civil  authority,  and  claimed  her  condemnation 
and  execution  under  the  edicts  of  1540,  decrees  which  every 
one  had  supposed  as  obsolete  as  the  statutes  of  Draco,  which 
they  had  so  entirely  put  to  shame. 

The  sentence  having  been  obtained  from  the  docile  and 
priest-ridden  magistrates,  Anna  van  den  Hove  was  brought  to 
Brussels  and  informed  that  she  was  at  once  to  be  buried 
alive.  At  the  same  time,  the  J esuits  told  her  that  by  con¬ 
verting  herself  to  the  Church  she  might  escape  punishment.18 

When  .King  Henry  IY.  was  summoned  to  renounce 
that  same  Huguenot  faith,  of  which  he  was  the  political 
embodiment  and  the  military  champion,  the  candid  man 
answered  by  the  simple  demand  to  be  instructed.  When  the 
proper  moment  came,  the  instruction  was  accomplished  by  an 
archbishop  with  the  rapidity  of  magic.  Half  an  hour  undid 
the  work  of  half  a  life-time.  Thus  expeditiously  could 
religious  conversion  be  effected  when  an  earthly  crown  was 
its  guerdon.  The  poor  serving-maid  was  less  open  to  con¬ 
viction.  In  her  simple  fanaticism  she  too  talked  of  a  crown, 
and  saw  it  descending  from  Heaven  on  her  poor  forlorn  head 
as  the  reward,  n‘ot  of  apostasy,  but  of  steadfastness.  She 
asked  her  tormentors  how  they  could  expect  her  to  abandon 
her  religion  for  fear  of  death.  She  had  read  her  Bible  every 
day,  she  said,  and  had  found  nothing  there  of  the  pope 
or  purgatory,  masses,  invocation  of  saints,  or  the  absolution 
of  sins  except  through  the  blood  of  the  blessed  Redeemer. 
She  interfered  with  no  one  who  thought  differently;  she 
quarrelled  with  no  one's  religious  belief.  She  had  prayed  for 
enlightenment  from  Him,  if  she  were  in  error,  and  the  result 
was  that  she  felt  strengthened  in  her  simplicty,  and  resolved 
to  do  nothing  against  her  conscience.  Rather  than  add  this 
sin  to  the  manifold  ones  committed  by  her,  she  preferred,  she 
said,  to  die  the  death.  So  Anna  van  den  Hove  was  led,  one 
fine  midsummer  morning,  to  the  hay-field  outside  of  Brussels, 
between  two  Jesuits,  followed  by  a  number  of  a  peculiar  kind 


3S  Bor,  IV.  384,  335.  Meteren,  400. 


446  the  united  Netherlands.  Cjiap.  xxxiii. 

of  monks  called  love-brotliers.  Those  holy  men  goaded  her 
as  she  went,  telling  her  that  she  was  the  devil's  carrion,  and 
calling  on  her  to  repent  at  the  last  moment,  and  thus  save 
her  life  and  escape  eternal  damnation  beside.  But  the  poor 
soul  had  no  ear  for  them,  and  cried  out  that,  like  Stephen, 
she  saw  the  heavens  opening,  and  the  angels  stooping  down 
to  conduct  her  far  away  from  the  power  of  the  evil  one. 
When  they  came  to  the  hay-field  they  found  the  pit  already 
dug,  and  the  maid-servant  was  ordered  to  descend  into  it. 
The  executioner  then  covered  her  with  earth  up  to  the  waist, 
and  a  last  summons  was  made  to  her  to  renounce  her  errors. 
She  refused,  and  then  the  earth  was  piled  upon  her,  and  the 
hangman  jumped  upon  the  grave  till  it  was  flattened  and 
firm.19 

Of  all  the  religious  murders  done  in  that  hideous  sixteenth 
century  in  the  Netherlands,  the  burial  of  the  Antwerp  servant- 
maid  was  the  last  and  the  worst.  The  worst,  because  it  was 
a  cynical  and  deliberate  attempt  to  revive  the  demon  whose 
thirst  for  blood  had  .been  at  last  allayed,  and  who  had  sunk 
into  repose.  And  it  was  a  spasmodic  revival  only,  for,  in  the 
provinces  at  least,  that  demon  had  finished  ‘his  work. 

Still,  on  the  eastern  borders  of  what  was  called  civilization, 
Turk  and  Christian  were  contending  for  the  mastery.  The 
great  battle  of  Kovesd  had  decided  nothing,  and  the  crescent 
still  shone  over  the  fortified  and  most  important  Hungarian 
stronghold  of  Baab,  within  arm's  length  of  Vienna.  How 
rapidly  might  that  fatal  and  menacing  emblem  fill  its  horns, 
should  it  once  be  planted  on  the  walls  of  the  Imperial 
capital  !  It  was  not  wonderful  that  a  sincere  impatience 
should  be  felt  by  all  the  frontier  States  for  th6  termination 
of  the  insurrection  of  the  Netherlands.  Would  that  rebellious* 
and  heretical  republic  only  consent  to  go  out  of  existence, 
again  bow  its  stubborn  knee  to  Philip  and  the  Pope,  what 
a  magnificent  campaign  might  be  made  against  Mahomet ! 
The  King  of  Spain  was  the  only  potentate  at  all  comparable 


19  Bor,  Meteren,  ubi  sup. 


1597. 


TURK  AND  CHRISTIAN. 


447 


in  powei  to  the  grand  Turk.  The  King  of  Prance,  most 
warlike  of  men,  desired  nothing  better,  as  he  avowed,  than  to 
lead  hia  brave  nobles  into  Hungary  to  smite  the  unbelievers. 
Even  Prince  Maurice,  it  was  fondly  hoped,  might  be  induced 
to  accept  a  high  command  in  the  united  armies  of  Christendom, 
and  seek  for  glory  by  campaigning,  in  alliance  with  Philip’ 
Rudolph,  and  Henry,  against  the  Ottoman,  rather  than 
against  his  natural  sovereign.  Such  were  the  sagacity,  the 
insight,  the  power  of  forecasting  the  future  possessed  in  those 
days .  by  monarchs,  statesmen,  and  diplomatists  who  were 
imagining  that  they  held  the  world’s  destiny  in  their  hands. 

There  was  this  summer  a  solemn  embassy  from  the 
emperor  to  the  States-General  proposing  mediation  refer¬ 
ring  in  the  usual  conventional  phraseology  to  the  right  of 
kings  to  command,  and  to  the  duty  of  the  people  to  submit, 
and  urging  the  gentle-mindedness  and  readiness  to  forgive 
which  characterised  the  sovereign  of  the  Netherlands  and  of 
Spain. 

And  the  statesmen  of  the  republic  had  answered  as  they 
always  did,  showing  with  courteous  language,  irresistible 
logic,  and  at  unmerciful  length,  that  there  never  had  been 
kings  in  the  Netheilands  at  all,  and  that  the  gentle-minded¬ 
ness  of  Philip  had  been  exhibited  in  the  massacre  of  a, 
hundred  thousand  Netherlander s  in  various  sieges  and  battles 
and  in  the  murder,  under  the  Duke  of  Alva  alone,  of  twenty 
thousand  human  beings  by  the  hangman.20 

They  liked  not  such  divine  right  nor  such  gentle-minded¬ 
ness.  They  recognised  no  duty  on  their  part  to  consent  to 
such  a  system.  Even  the  friendly  King  of  Denmark  sent  a 
legation  for  a  similar  purpose,  which  was  respectfully  but 
very  decidedly  allowed  to  return  as  it  came  ; 21  but  the  most 
persistent  in  schemes  of  interference  for  the  purpose  of 
putting  an  end  to  the  effusion  of  blood  m  the  Netherlands 
was  Sigismund  of  Poland.  This  monarch,  who  occupied  two 
very  incompatible  positions,  being  sovereign  at  once  of 


20  Bor,  IV.  858. 


21  Ibid.  376. 


448 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXIII. 


fanatically  Protestant  Sweden  and  of  orthodox  Poland,  and 
who  was,  moreover,  son-in-law  of  Archduke  Charles  of  Styria 
— whose  other  daughter  was  soon  to  he  espoused  *hy  the 
Prince  of  Spain — was  personally  and  geographically  interested 
in  liberating  Philip  from  the  inconvenience  of  his  Netherland 
war.  Only  thus  could  he  hope  to  bring  the  Spanish  power 
to  the  rescue  of  Christendom  against  the  Turk.  Troubles 
enough  were  in  store  for  Sigismund  in  his  hereditary  northern 
realms,  and  he  was  to  learn  that  his  intermarriage  with  the 
great  Catholic  and  Imperial  house  did  not  enable  him  to 
trample  out  Protestantism  in  those  hardy  Scandinavian 
and  Flemish  regions  where  it  had  taken  secure  root.  Mean¬ 
time  he  despatched,  in  solemn  mission  to  the  republic  and 
to  the  heretic  queen,  a  diplomatist  whose  name  and  whose 
oratorical  efforts  have  by  a  caprice  of  history  been  allowed  to 
endure  to  our  times. 

Paul  Hialyn  was  solemnly  received  at  the  Hague  on  the 
21  July,  21st  July.22  A  pragmatical  fop,  attired  in  along, 
magnificent  Polish  robe,  covered  with  diamonds  and 
other  jewels,  he  was  yet  recognised  by  some  of  those  present 
as  having  been  several  years  before  a  student  at  Leyden  under 
a  different  name,  and  with  far  less  gorgeous  surroundings.23 
He  took  up  his  position  in  the  council-chamber,  in  the 
presence  of  the  stadholder  and  the  leading  members  of  the 
States-General,  and  pronounced  a  long  Latin  oration,  in 
the  manner,  as  it  was  said,  of  a  monk  delivering  a  sermon 
from  the  pulpit.  He  kept  his  eyes  steadily  fixed  on  the 
ceiling,  never  once  looking  at  the  men  whom  he  was 
addressing,  and  speaking  in  a  loud,  nasal,  dictatorial  tone, 
not  at  all  agreeable  to  the  audience.  He  dwelt  in  terms  of 
extravagant  eulogy  on  the  benignity  and  gentleness  of  the 
King  of  Spain — qualities  in  which  he  asserted  that  no  prince 
on  earth  could  be  compared  to  him — and  he  said  this  to. 
the  very  face  of  Maurice  of  Nassau.  That  the  benignant 
and  gentle  king  had  caused  the  stadholder’ s  father  to  be 


22  Bor,  IV.  882-384.  Reyd,  804-305. 


23  Reyd,  libi  sup. 


1597. 


EMBASSY  FROM  THE  KING  OF  POLAND. 


449 


assassinated,  and  that  he  had  rewarded  the  murderer’s  family 
with  a  patent  ot  nobility,  and  with  an  ample  revenue  taken 
from  the  murdered  man’s  property,  appeared  of  no  account 
to  the  envoy  in  the  full  sweep  of  his  rhetoric.  Yet  the 
reminiscence  caused  a  shudder  of  disgust  in  all  who  heard 
him. 

He  then  stated  the  wish  of  his  master  the  Polish  king  to 
be  that,  in  consideration  of  the  present  state  of  Europe  in 
regard  to  the  Turk,  the  provinces  might  reconcile  themselves 
to  their  natural  master,  who  was  the  most  powerful  monarch 
in  Christendom,  and  the  only  one  able  to  make  head  against 
the  common  foe.  They  were  solemnly  warned  of  the  enor¬ 
mous  power  and  resources  of  the  great  king,  with  whom  it 
was  hopeless  for  them  to  protract  a  struggle  sure  to  end  at 
last  in  their  uttermost  destruction.  It  was  for  kings  to  issue 
commands,  he  said,  and  for  the  people  to  obey  ;  hut  Philip 
was  full  of  sweetness,  and  would  accord  them  full  forgiveness 
for  their  manifold  sins  a^gainst  him.  The  wish  to  come  to 
the  rescue  of  Christendom,  in  this  extreme  peril  from  the 
Turk,  was  with  him  paramount  to  all  other  considerations.24 

Such,  in  brief,  was  the  substance  of  the  long  Latin  harangue 
by  which  it  was  thought  possible  to  induce  those  sturdy 
republicans  and  Calvinists  to  renounce  their  vigorous  national 
existence  and  to  fall  on  their  knees  before  the  most  Catholic 
king.  This  was  understood  to  be  mediation,  statesmanship, 
diplomacy,  in  deference  to  which  the  world  was  to  pause 
and  the  course  of  events  to  flow  backwards.  Truly,  despots 
and  their  lackeys  were  destined  to  learn  some  rude  lessons 
from  that  vigorous  little  commonwealth  in  the  North  Sea, 
before  it  should  have  accomplished  its  mission  on  earth. 

The  States-General  dissembled  their  disgust,  however,  for 
it  was  not  desirable  to  make  open  enemies  of  Sigismund  or 
Rudolph.  They  refused  to  accept  a  copy  of  the  oration,  but 
they  promised  to  send  him  a  categorical  answer  to  it  in 
writing.  Meantime  the  envoy  had  the  honour  of  walking 


VOL.  hi. — 2  G 


24  Bor,  ubi  sup. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS 


Chap.  XXXIII 


450 


about  the  castle  with  the  stadholder,  and,  in  the  course  of 
their  promenade,  Maurice  pointed  to  the  thirty-eight  standards 
taken  at  the  battle  of  Turnhout,  which  hung  from  the 
cedarn  rafters  of  the  ancient  banquotting  hall.25  The  mute 
eloquence  of  those  tattered  banners  seemed  a  not  illogical 
reply  to  the  diplomatic  Paul's  rhetoric  in  regard  to  the  hope¬ 
lessness  of  a  contest  with  Spanish  armies. 

Next,  Van  der  Werken — pensionary  of  Leyden,  and  a 
23  July  classical  scholar — waited  upon  the  envoy  with  a  Latin 
1597.  ’  repiy  to  his  harangue,  together  with  a  courteous 
letter  for  Sigismund.  Both  documents  were  scathing  denun¬ 
ciations  of  the  policy  pursued  by  the  King  of  Spain  and  by 
all  his  aiders  and  abettors,  and  a  distinct  but  polished  refusal 
to  listen  to  a  single  word  in  favour  of  mediation  or  of  peace. 

Paul  Dialyn  then  received  a  courteous  permission  to  leave 
the  territory  of  the  republic,  and  was  subsequently  forwarded 
in  a  States'  vessel  of  war  to  England. 

His  reception,  about  a  month  later,  by  Queen  Elizabeth  is 
an  event  on  which  all  English  historians  are  fond  of  dwelling. 
The  pedant,  on  being  presented  to  that  imperious  and  accom¬ 
plished  sovereign,  deported  himself  with  the  same  ludicrous 
arrogance  which  had  characterised  him  at  the  IJague.  His 
Latin  oration,  which  had  been  duly  drawn  up  for  him  by  the 
Chancellor  of  Sweden,  was  quite  as  impertinent  as  his 
harangue  to  the  States- General  had  been,  and  was  delivered 
with  the  same  conceited  air.  The  queen  replied  on  the 
instant  in  the  same  tongue.-  She  was  somewhat  in  a  passion, 
but  spoke  with  majestic  moderation.26 

“  Oh,  how  I  have  been  deceived  !"  she  exclaimed.  “  I 
expected  an  ambassador,  and  behold  a  herald  !  In  all  my  life 
I  never  heard  of  such  an  oration.  Your  boldness  and  unad¬ 
vised  temerity  I  cannot  sufficiently  admire.  But  if  the 
king  your  master  has  given  you  any  such  thing  in  charge 
— which  I  much  doubt — I  believe  it  is  because,  being  but  a 


25  Bor,  ubi  sup.  ,  , 

26  Camden,  536,  537.  Bor,  IV.  350.  Wright,  ‘  Queen  Elizabeth  and  her 

Times,’  ii.  480. 


1597.  DIALYN’S  RECEPTION  BY  ELIZABETH.  454 

young  man,  and  lately  advanced  to  tlie  crown,  not  by  ordi¬ 
nary  succession  of  blood,  but  by  election,  lie  understandeth 
not  yet  the  way  of  such  affairs.”.  And  so  on  for  several 
minutes  longer. 

Never  did  envoy  receive  such  a  setting  down  from  sove¬ 
reign. 

“  God’s  death,  my  lords  !”  said  the  queen  to  her  ministers, 
as  she  concluded,  u  I  have  been  enforced  this  day  to  scour  up 
my  old  Latin'  that  hath  lain  long  in  rusting.” 27 

This  combination  of  ready  wit,  high  spirit,  and  good  Latin, 
justly  excited  the  enthusiasm  of  the  queen's  subjects,  and 
endeared  her  still  more  to  every  English  heart.  It  may,  how¬ 
ever,  be  doubted  whether  the  famous  reply  was  in  reality  so 
entirely  extemporaneous  as  it  has  usually  been  considered. 
The  States- General  had  lost  no  time  in  forwarding  to  Eng¬ 
land  a  minute  account  of  the  proceedings  of  Paul  Dialyn  at 
the  Hague,  together  with  a  sketch  of  his  harangue  and  of 
the  reply  on  behalf  of  the  States.28  Her  Majesty  and  her 
counsellors  therefore,  knowing  that  the  same  envoy  was  on 
his  way  to  England  with  a  similar  errand,  may  be  supposed 
to  have  had  leisure  to  prepare  the  famous  impromptu.  More¬ 
over,  it  is  difficult  to  understand,  on  the  presumption  that 
these  classic  utterances  were  purely  extemporaneous,  how 
they  have  kept  their  place  in  all  chronicles  and  histories  from 
that  day  to  the  present,  without  change  of  a  word  in  the 
text.  Surely  there  was  no  stenographer  present  to  take  down 
the  queen's  words  as  they  fell  from  her  lips. 

The  military  events  of  the  year  did  not  testify  to  a  much 
more  successful  activity  on  the  part  of  the  new  league  in  the 
field  than  it  had  displayed  in  the  sphere  of  diplomacy.  In 
vain  did  the  envoy  of  the  republic  urge  Henry  and  his 
counsellors  to  follow  up  the  crushing  blow  dealt  to  the  car¬ 
dinal  at  Turnhout  by  vigorous  operations  in  conjunction  with 
the  States'  forces  in  Artois  and  Hainault.29  For  Amiens  had 

27  Wright,  ubi  sup.  28  Bor,  uU  sup. 

29  Calvaert  to  the  States-General,  in  Deventer,  ii.  141,  scqq. 


1 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXIII. 


452 


meantime  been  taken,  and  it  was  now  necessary  for  the  king 
to  employ  all  his  energy  and  all  his  resources  to  recover  that 
important  city.  So  muph  damage  to  the  cause  of  the  re¬ 
public  and  of  the  new  league  had  the  little  yellow  Spanish 
captain  inflicted  in  an  hour,  with  his  bags  of  chestnuts  and 
walnuts.  The  siege  of  Amiens  lasted  nearly  six  months,  and 
was  the  main  event  of  the  campaign,  so  far  as  Henry  was 
concerned.  It  is  true — as  the  reader  has  already  seen,  and  as 
will  Soon  be  more  clearly  developed — that  Henry's  heart  had 
been  fixed  on  peace  from  the  moment  that  he  consented  in 
conjunction  with  the  republic  to  declare  war,  and  that  he 
had  entered  into  secret  and  separate  negotiations  for  that 
purpose  with  the  agents  of  Philip,  so  soon  as  he  had  bound 
himself  by  solemn  covenant  with  Elizabeth  to  have  no 
negotiations  whatever  with  him  except  with  her  full  know¬ 
ledge  and  consent. 

The  siege  of  Amiens,  however,  was  considered  a  military 
masterpiece,  and  its  whole  progress  showed  the  revolution 
which  the  stadholder  of  Holland  had  already  effected  in 
European  warfare.  Henry  IY.  beleaguered  Amiens  as  if  he 
were  a  pupil  of  Maurice,  and  contemporaries  were  enthusi¬ 
astic  over  the  science,  the  patience,  the  inventive  ingenuity 
which  were  at  last  crowned  with  success.  The  heroic 
Hernan  Tello  de  Porto  Carrero  was  killed  in  a  sortie  during 
the  defence  of  the  place  which  he  hgd  so  gallantly  won, 
19  Sept,  and  when  the  city  was  surrendered  to  the  king 
1597.  on  ppg  19th  of  September  it  was  stipulated  in 
the  first  article  of  the  capitulation  that  the  tomb,  epitaph, 
and  trophies,  by  which  his  memory  was  honoured  in  the 
principal  church,  should  not  be  disturbed,  and  that  his  body 
might  he  removed  whenever  and  whither  it  seemed  good  to 
his  sovereign.  In  vain  the  cardinal  had  taken  the  field 
with  an  army  of  eighteen  thousand  foot  and  fifteen  hundred 
light  cavalry.  The  king  had  learned  so  well  to  entrench 
himself  and  to  moderate  his  ardour  for  inopportune  pitched 
battles,  that  the  relieving  force  could  find  no  occasion  to  effect 
its  purpose.  The  archduke  retired.  He  came  to  Amiens  like 


1597. 


RECOVERY  OF  AMIENS. 


453 


a  soldier,  said  Henry,  but  he  went  back  like  a  priest.  More¬ 
over,  he  was  obliged  to  renounce,  besides  the  city,  a  most 
tempting  prize  which  he  thought  that  he  had  secured  within 
the  city.  Alexander  Farnese,  in  his  last  French  campaign 
had  procured  and  sent  to  his  uncle  the  foot  of  St.  Philip  mid 
the  head  of  St.  Lawrence ;  but  what  was  Albert’s  delight 
when  he  learned  that  in  Amiens  cathedral  there  was  a 
large  piece  of  the  head  of  John  the  Baptist  !  “  There  will 
be  a  great  scandal  about  it  in  this  kingdom,”  he  wrote  to 
Philip,  .  if  I  undertake  to  transport  it  out  of  the  country, 
but  I  will  try  to  contrive  it  as  your  Majesty  desires.” 30 

Bnt  the  military  events  of  the  year  prevented  the  cardinal 
from  gratifying  the  king  in  regard  to  these  choice  curi- 


osities. 


.  ^ter  ^  reduction  of  the  city  Henry  went  a  considerable 
distance  with  his  army  towards  the  frontier  of  Flanders  in 
order  to  return,  as  he  said,  his  cousin's  visit.31  But  the 
recovery  of  Amiens  had  placed  too  winning  a  card  in  the 
secret  game  which  he  was  then  playing  to  allow  him  to  push 
his  nominal  adversary  to  extremities. 

The  result,  suspected  very  early  in  the  year  by  the  states¬ 
men1  of  the  republic,  was  already  very  plainly  foreshadowing 
itself  as  the  winter  advanced. 

Nor  had  the  other  two  members  of  the  league  effected 
much  in  the  field.  Again  an  expedition  had  been  fitted  forth 
under  Essex  against  the  Spanish  coast  to  return  the  compli¬ 
ment  which  Philip  had  intended  with  the  unlucky  armada 
under  Santa  Gadea  ;  and  again  Sir  Francis  Yere,  with  two 
thousand  veterans  from  the  Netherlands,  and  the  Dutch 
admirals,  with  ten  ships  of  war  and  a  large  number  of  tenders 
and  transports,  had  faithfully  taken  part  in  the  adventure. 


20  Albert  to  Philip,  14  March,  1597.  ! 
Same  to  same,  16  Aug.  1597.  (Arch 
he  Sim,  MS.) 

“  Tfc  Virvon  - _  A _ • 


“  Es  cosa  cierta  que  esta  en  Amiens 
gran  parte  de  la  cabeza  do  San  Juan 
Baptista.  Aun  podria  causar  en  aquel 
Reyno  algun  scandalo  el  tratar  de  un 


<j  For  the  siege  of  Amiens,  see  De 
Thou,  xiii.  109—126.  Meteren,  396.  Ben- 
tivoglio,  458,  seqq.  Carnero,  407,  seqq. 
andespeciaUy  Coloma,  238-271.  Albert 
to  Philip,  30  Sept.  1597.  (Arch,  de 


como  mas  convenga  conforme  a  lo  que 
V.  Magd.  me  manda,”  &c.  &c. 

<J1  thn  mArtiA  r.-P  A _ 1 _  t-v 


fcraslacion  pero  procurare  que  se  giiie  j  Simancas  MS.) 


454  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXIII. 

The  fleet  was  tempest-tossed  for  ten  days,  during  which  it 
reached  the  threatened  coast  and  was  blown  off  again.  It 
returned  at  last  into  the  English  ports,  having  accomplished 
nothing,  and  having  expended  superfluously  a  considerable 
amount  of  money  and  trouble.  Essex,  with  a  few  of  the 
vessels,  subsequently  made  a  cruise  towards  the  Azores,  but, 
beyond  the  capture  of  a  Spanish  merchantman  or  two,  gained 

no  glory  and  inflicted  no  damage.32 

Nothing  could  be  feebler  than  the  military  operations  of 
the  three  confederated  powers  ever  since  they  had  so  solemnly 
confederated  themselves. 

Sick  at  heart  with  the  political  intrigues  of  his  allies, 
which  had  brought  a  paralysis  upon  his  arms  which  the 
blows  of  the  enemy  could  hardly  have  effected,  Maurice  took 
the  field  in  August  for  an  autumnal  campaign  on  the  eastern 
frontier  of  the  republic.  Foiled  in  his  efforts  for  a  combined 
attack  by  the  whole  force  of  the  league  upon  Philip's  power 
in  the  west,  he  thought  it  at  least  expedient  to  liberate  the 
Pihine,  to  secure  the  important  provinces  of  Zutphen,  Gelder- 
land,  and  Overyssel  from  attack,  and  to  provide  against  the 
dangerous  intrigues  and  concealed  warfare  carried  on  by  Spain 
in  the  territories  of  the  mad  Duke  of  Juliers,  Cleves  and 
Berg.  For  the  seeds  of  the  Thirty  Years’  War  of  Germany 
were  already  sown  broadcast  in  those  fatal  duchies,  and  it 
was  the  determination  of  the  agents  of  Spain  to  acquire  the 
mastery  of  that  most  eligible  military  position,  that  excellent 
sedes  belli ,  whenever  Protestantism  was  to  be  assailed  in 
England,  the  Netherlands,  or  Germany. 

Meantime  the  Hispaniolated  counsellors  of  Duke  J okn  had 
strangled — as  it  was  strongly  suspected — his  duchess,  who 
having  gone  to  bed  in  perfect  health  one  evening  was  found 
dead  in  her  bed  next  morning,  with  an  ugly  mark  on  her 
throat ; 33  and  it  was  now  the  purpose  of  these  statesmen  to 
find  a  new  bride  for  their  insane  sovereign  in  the  ever  ready 
and  ever  orthodox  house  of  Lorraine.34  And  the  Protestant 


32  Bor,  IV.  835-337.  Camden,  529-535. 


33  Reyd,  319. 


34  Ibid. 


1597. 


MARRIAGE  OF  THE  PRINCESS  EMILIA. 


455 


brotliers-in-law  and  nephews  and  nieces  were  making  every 
possible  combination  in  order  to  check  such  dark  designs, 
and  to  save  these  important  territories  from  the  ubiquitous 
power  of  Spain. 

The  stadholder  had  also  family  troubles  at  this  period. 
His  sister  Emilia  had  conceived  a  desperate  passion  for  Don 
Emmanuel,  the  pauper  son  of  the  forlorn  pretender  to 
Portugal,  Don  Antonio,  who  had  at  last  departed  this  life. 
Maurice  was  indignant  that  a  Catholic,  an  outcast,  and,  as 
it  was  supposed,  a  bastard,  should  dare  to  mate  with  the 
daughter  of  William  of  Orange-Nassau ;  and  there  were 
many  scenes  of  tenderness,  reproaches,  recriminations,  and 
hysterica  passio ,  in  which  not  only  the  lovers,  the  stad¬ 
holder  and  his  family,  but  also  the  high  and  mighty  States- 
General,  were  obliged  to  enact  their  parts.  The  chronicles 
are  filled  with  the  incidents,  which,  however,  never  turned  to 
tragedy,  nor  even  to  romance,  but  ended,  without  a  .  cata¬ 
strophe,  in  a  rather  insipid  marriage.  The  Princess  Emilia 
remained  true  both  to  her  religion  and  her  husband  during  a 
somewhat  obscure  wedded  life,  and  after  her.  death  Don 
Emmanuel  found  means  to  reconcile  himself  with  the  King 
of  Spain  and  to  espouse,  in  second  nuptials,  a  Spanish  lady.  5 

On  the  4th  of  August,  Maurice  arrived  at  Arnhem  with  a 
force  of  seven  thousand  foot  and  twelve  hundred  4Auo*. 
horse.  Hohenlo  was  with  him,  and  William  Lewis,  1597* 
and  there  was  yet  another. of  the  illustrious  house  of  Nassau 
in  the  camp,  Frederick  Henry,  a  boy  in  his  thirteenth  year, 
the  youngest  born  of  William  the  Silent,  the  grandson  of 
Admiral  de  Coligny,  now  about,  in  this  his  first  campaign,  to 
take  the  first  step  in  a  long  and  noble,  career.36 

Having  reduced  the  town  and  castle  of  Alphen,  the  stad¬ 
holder  came  before  Rheinberg,  which  he  very  expeditiously 
invested.  During  a  preliminary  skirmish  William  Lewis 
received  a  wound  in  the  leg,  while  during  the  brief  siege 

35  Bor,  IV.  322-324.  Van  der  Kemp,  ii.  36-40,  182-194. 

36  Van  der  Kemp,  ii.  31,  32. 


456 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXIII. 


Maurice  had  a  narrow  escape  from  death,  a  cannon-ball  pass¬ 
ing  through  his  tent  and  over  his  head  as  he  lay  taking  a 
brief  repose  upon  his  couch.37 

On  the  19th,  Rheinberg,  the  key  to  that  portion  of  the 
19  Aug.  river,  surrendered.  On  the  31st  the  stadholder 
1597-  opened  his  batteries  upon  the  city  of  Meurs,  which 
capitulated  on  the  2nd  of  September ;  the  commandant, 
Andrew  Miranda,  stipulating  that  he  should  carry  off  an  old 
fifty-pounder,  the  only  piece  of  cannon  in  the  place.  Maurice 
gave  his  permission  with  a  laugh,  begging  Miranda  not  to 
batter  down  any  cities  with  his  big  gun.38 

On  the  8th  September  the  stadholder  threw  a  bridge  over 
the  Rhine,  and  crossing  that  river  and  the  Lippe,  came  on  the 
11th  before  Grol.  There  was  no  Christopher  Mondragon 
now  in  his  path  to  check  his  progress  and  spoil  his  campaign, 
so  that  in  seventeen  days  the  city,  being  completely  sur¬ 
rounded  with  galleries  and  covered  ways  up  to  its  walls, 
surrendered.  Count  van  Stirum,  royal  governor  of  the  place, 
dined  with  the  stadholder  on  that  day,  and  the  garrison,  from 
twelve  hundred  to  fifteen  hundred  strong,  together  with  such 
of  the  townsfolk  as  chose  to  be  subjects  of  Philip  rather 
than  citizens  of  the  republic,  were  permitted  to  depart  in 
peace.39 

On  the  9th  October  the  town  and  castle  of  Brevoort  were 
taken  by  storm  and  the  town  was  burned.40 

On  the  18tli  October,  Maurice  having  summoned  Enschede, 
the  commandant  requested  permission  to  examine  the  artil¬ 
lery  by  which  it  was  proposed  to  reduce  the  city.  Leave 
being  granted,  two  captains  were  deputed  accordingly  as 
inspectors,  who  reported  that  resistance  was  useless.  The 
place  accordingly  capitulated  at  once.41 

Here,  again,  was  an  improvement  on  the  heroic  practice  of 
Alva  and  Romero. 

On  the  21st  and  22nd  October,  Ootmarsum  and  Oldenzaal 

37  Bor,  IV.  345.  Van  der  Kemp,  ii.  32. 

38  Reyd,  xiv.  312.  39  Bor,  IV.  349.  Meteren.  411-417. 

40  Ibid.  41  Letter  of  Maurice,  in  Van  der  Kemp,  ii.  180. 


1597. 


RESULTS  OF  MAURICE’S  CAMPAIGN. 


457 


were  taken,  and  on  the  28tli  the  little  army  came  before 
Lingen.  This  important  city  surrendered  after  a  fortnight’s 
siege. 

Thus  closed  a  sagacious,  business-like,  three-months’  cam¬ 
paign,  in  the  course  of  which  the  stadholder,  although  with 
a  slender  force,  had  by  means  of  his  excellent  organization 
and  his  profound  practical  science,  achieved  very  considerable 
results.  He  had  taken  nine  strongly-fortified  cities  and  five 
castles,  opened  the  navigation  of  the  Rhine,  and  strengthened 
the  whole  eastern  bulwarks  of  .the  republic.42  He  was  censured 
by  the  superficial  critics  of  the  old  school  for  his  humanity 
towards  the  conquered  garrisons.  At  least  it  was  thought 
quite  superfluous  to  let  these  Spanish  soldiers  go  scot  free. 
Five  thousand  veterans  had  thus  been  liberated  to  swell  the 
ranks  of  the  cardinal’s  army,  but  the  result  soon  proved  the 
policy  of  Maurice  to  be,  in  many  ways,  wholesome.  The  great 
repudiation  by  Philip,  and  the  consequent  bankruptcy  of 
Albert,  converted  large  numbers  of  the  royal  troops  into 
mutineers,  and  these  garrisons  from  the  eastern  frontier  were 
glad  to  join  in  the  game. 

After  the  successful  siege  of  Hulst  in  the  previous  year 
the  cardinal  had  reduced  the  formidable  mutiny  which  had 
organized  itself  at  Tirlemont  and  Chapelle  in  the  days  of  his 
luckless  predecessor.  Those  rebels  had  been  paid  off  and  had 
mainly  returned  to  Italy  and  other  lands  to  spend  their  money. 
But  soon  a  new  rebellion  in  all  the  customary  forms  estab¬ 
lished  itself  in  Antwerp  citadel  during  the  temporary  absence 
of  Mexia,  the  governor,  and  great  was  the  misery  of  the 
unhappy  burghers  thus  placed  at  the  mercy  of  the  guns  of 
that  famous  pentagon.  They  were  obliged  to  furnish  large 
sums  to  the  whole  garrison,  paying  every  common  foot-soldier 
twelve  stivers  a  day  and  the  officers  in  proportion,  while  the 
great  Eletto  demanded,  beside  his  salary,  a  coach  and  six, 
a  state  bed  with  satin  curtains  and  fine  linen,  and  the  materials 
for  banquetting  sumptuously  every  day.43  At  the  slightest 

42  Bor,  IV.  845-363.  Van  cler  Kemp,  ii  31-35,  177,  seqq.  Meteren,  ubi  sup. 

43  Bor,  IV.  468. 


458 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXIII. 


demur  to  these  demands  the  bombardment  from  the  citadel 
would  begin,  and  the  accurate  artillery  practice  of  those 
experienced  cannoneers  soon  convinced  the  loyal  citizens  of 
the  propriety  of  the  arrangement.44  The  example  spread. 
The  garrison  of  Ghent  broke  into  open  revolt,  and  a  general 
military  rebellion  lasted  for  more  than  a  year. 

While-  the  loyal  citi'es  of  the  obedient  provinces  were  thus 
enjoying  the  fruits  of  their  loyalty  and  obedience,  the  rebellious 
capital  of  the  republic  was  receiving  its  stadh older  with 
exuberant  demonstrations  of  gratitude.  The  year,  begun 
with  the  signal  victory  of  Turnhout,  had  worthily  terminated, 
so  far  as  military  events  were  concerned,  with  the  autumnal 
campaign  on  the  Rhine,  and  great  were  the  rejoicings  through¬ 
out  the  little  commonwealth. 

Thus,  with  diminished  resources,  had  the  republic  been 
doing  its  share  of  the  work  which  the  anti- Spanish  league 
had  been  called  into  existence  to  accomplish.  But,  as  already 
intimated,  this  league  was  a  mere  fraud  upon  the  Nether¬ 
lands,  which  their  statesmen  were  not  slow  in  discovering. 
Of  course  it  was  the  object  of  Philip  and  of  the  pope  to 
destroy  this  formidable  triple  alliance  as  soon  as  formed,  and 
they  found  potent  assistance,  not  only  in  Henry's  counsellors, 
but  in  the  bosom  of  that  crafty  monarch  himself.  Clement 
hated  Philip  as  much  as  he  feared  him,  so  that  the  prospect 
both  of  obtaining  Henry  as  a  counterpoise  to  his  own  most 
oppressive  and  most  Catholic  protector,  and  of  breaking  up 
the  great  convert’s  alliance  with  the  heretic  queen  and  the 
rebellious  republic,  was  a  most  tempting  one  to  his  Holiness. 
Therefore  he  employed,  indefatigably,  the  matchless  powers 
of  intrigue  possessed  by  Rome  to  effect  this  great  purpose. 
As  for  Elizabeth,  she  was  weary  of  the  war,  most  anxious  to  be 
reimbursed  her  advances  to  the  States,  and  profoundly  jealous 
of  the  rising  commercial  and  naval  greatness  of  the  new 
commonwealth.  If  the  league  therefore  proved  impotent 
from  the  beginning,  certainly  it  was  not  the  fault  of  the 


*  44  Bor,  IV.  483. 


1597. 


POSITION  OF  THE  ANTI-SPANISH  LEAGUE. 


459 


United  Netherlands.  We  have  seen  how  much  the  king 
deplored,  in  intimate  conversation  with  De  Bethune,45  his 
formal  declaration  of  war  against  Spain  which  the  Dutch 
dijDlomatists  had  induced  him  to  make ;  and  indeed  nothing 
can  he  more  certain  than  that  this  public  declaration  of  war, 
and  this  solemn  formation  of  the  triple  alliance  against 
Philip,  were  instantly  accompanied  on  Henry’s  part  by  secret 
peace  negotiations  with  Philip’s  agents.  Villeroy  told  Envoy 
Calvaert  that  as  for  himself  he  always  trembled  when  he 
thought  on  what  he  had  done,  in  seconding  the  will  of  his 
Majesty  in  that  declaration  at  the  instance  of  the  States- 
General,  of  which  measure  so  many  losses  and  such  bitter 
fruits  had  been  the  result. 6  He  complained,  too,  of  the 
little  assistance  or  co-operation  yielded  by  England.47  Calvaert 
replied  that  he  had  nothing  to  say  in  defence  of  England,48 
but  that  certainly  the  king  could  have  no  cause  to  censure 
the  States.  The  republic,  however,  had  good  ground,  he 
said,  to  complain  that  nothing  had  been  done  by  France,  that 
all  favourable  occasions  had  been  neglected,  and  that  there 
was  a  perpetual  change  of  counsels.  The  envoy  especially, 
and  justly,  reproached  the  royal  government  for  having  taken 
no  advantage  of  the  opportunity  offered  by  the  victory  of 
Turnhout,  in  which  the  republic  had  utterly  defeated  the 
principal  forces  of  the  common  enemy.  He  bluntly  re¬ 
marked,  too,  that  the  mysterious  comings  and  goings  of 
Balvena  had  naturally  excited  suspicions  in  the  Netherlands, 
and  that  it  would  be  better  that  all  such  practices  should  be 
at  once  abandoned.  They  did  his  Majesty  no  service,  and 
it  was  no  wonder  that  they  caused  uneasiness  to  his  allies. 
Villeroy  replied  that  the  king  had  good  reasons  to  give 
satisfaction  to  those  who  were  yearning  for  peace 49 

As  Henry  himself  was  yearning  in  this  regard  as  much  as 
any  of  his  subjects,  it  was  natural  enough  that  he  should 
listen  to  Balvena  and  all  other  informal  negotiators  whom 


45  Antea.  Vide  Sully,  Memoires  I.  viii.  412.  Van  Deventer,  ii.  142. 

46  Calvaert’s  letter,  in  Deventer,  ii.  141-146.  41  Ibid. 

48  Ibid.  “Dat  ick  England  daer  liet.”  49  Ibid. 


460  the  united  Netherlands.  Chap,  xxxiii. 

Cardinal  Albert  might  send  from  Brussels  or  Clement  from 
Home.  It  will  be  recollected  that  Henry's  parting  words 
to  Balvena  at  Rouen  had  been  :  “  Tell  the  archduke  that 
X  am  very  much  his  friend.  Let  him  arrange  a  peace. 
Begone.  Be  diligent." 50 

But  the  king's  reply  to  Calvaert,  when,  after  the  interview 
with  Villeroy,  that  envoy  was  admitted  to  the  royal  dressing- 
room  for  private  conversation  and  took  the  occasion  to  re¬ 
monstrate  with  his  Majesty  on  these  intrigues  with  the 
Spanish  agent,  was  *that  he  should  send  off  Balvena  in  such 
fashion  that  it  would  take  from  the  cardinal-archduke  all 
hope  of  troubling  him  with  any  further  propositions.51 

It  has  been  seen,  too,  with  what  an  outbreak  of  wrath  the 
proposition,  made  by  Elizabeth  through  Robert  Sydney,  that 
she  should  succour  Calais  on  condition  of  keeping  it  for  herself, 
had  been  received  by  Henry.  At  a  somewhat  later  moment, 
when  Calais  had  passed  entirely  into  the  possession  of  Spain, 
the  queen  offered  to  lay  siege  to  that  city  with  twelve 
thousand  men,  but  with  the  understanding  that  the  success 
was  to  be  entirely  for  her  own  profit.  Again  the  king 
had  expressed  great  astonishment  and  indignation  at  the 
proposition.52 

Nevertheless,  after  Amiens  had  been  lost,  Henry  had 
sent  Fonquerolles  on  a  special  mission  to  England,53  asking 
Elizabeth's  assistance  in  the  siege  for  its  recovery,  and  offering 
that  she  should  keep  Calais  as  a  pledge  for  expenses  thus 
incurred,  on  the  same  terms  as  those  on  which  she  held  the 
Brill  and  Flushing  in  the  Netherlands.  This  proposal,  how¬ 
ever,  to  make  a  considerable  campaign  in  Picardy,  and  to  be 
indemnified  by  Henry  for  her  trouble  with  the  pledge  of  a 
city  which  was  not  his  property,  did  not  seem  tempting  to 
Elizabeth.  The  mission  of  Fonquerolles  was  fruitless,  as  might 
have  been  supposed.54  Nothing  certainly  in  the  queen's 
attitude,  up  to  that  moment,  could  induce  the  supposition 

“  AnUa.  61  Caron  to  the  States,  in  Deventer,  ubi  sup.  52  Ibid. 

Instructions  for  Fonquerolles,  in  Prevost  Paradol,  Elizabeth  et  Henri  IV. 

Calvaert  to  States-General,  in  Deventer,  ii.  47. 


1597.  BUZANVAL’S  COMMUNICATION  TO  THE  STATES.  4^ 

that  s£e  would  help  to  reduce  Amiens  for  the  sake  ‘of  the 
privilege  of  conquering  Calais  if  she  could. 

So  soon  as  her  refusal  was  made  certain,  Henry  dropped 
the  mask.  Buzanval,  the  regular  French  envoy  at  the 
Hague— even  while  amazing  the  States  by  rebukes  for  their 
short-comings  in  the  field  and  by  demands  for  immediate 
co-operation  in  the  king's  campaign,  when  the  king  was 
doing  nothing  but  besiege  Amiens— astonished  the  republican 
statesmen  still  further  by  telling  them  that  his  master  was 
listening  seriously  to  the  pope's  secret  offers.55 

His  Holiness  had  assured  the  king,  through  the  legate  at 
Paris,  that  he  could  easily  bring  about  a  peace  between  him 
and  Philip,  if  Henry  would  agree  to  make  it  alone,  and  he 
would  so  .manage  it  that  the  king's  name  should  not  be  mixed 
up  with  the  negotiations,  and  that  he  should  not  appear  as 
seeking  for  peace.  It  was  to  be  considered  however — so 
Henry's  envoy  intimated  both  at  Greenwich  and  the  Hague— 
that  if  the  king  should  accept  the  pope's  intervention  he 
would  be  obliged  to  exclude  from  a  share  in  it  the  queen  and 
all  others  not  of  the  Catholic  religion,  and  it  was  feared  that 
the  same  necessity  which  had  compelled  him  to  listen  to 
these  overtures  would  force  him  still  further  in  the  same 
path.  He  dreaded  lest,  between  peace  and  war,  he  might 
fall  into  a  position  in  which  the  law  would  be  dictated  to  him 

either  by  the  enemy  or  by  those  who  had  undertaken  to  help 
him  out  of  danger. 

Much  more  information  to  this  effect  did  Buzanval  com¬ 
municate  to  the  States  on  the  authority  of  a  private  letter 
from  the  king,  telling  him  of  the  ill-success  of  the  mission  of 
Fonquei  olles.' 0  That  diplomatist  had  brought  back  nothing 
from  England,  it  appeared,  save  excuses,  general  phrases, 
and  many  references  to  the  troubles  in  Ireland  and  to  the 
danger  of  a  new  Spanish  Armada. 

It  was  now  for  the  first  time,  moreover,  that  the  States 
learned  how  they  had  been  duped  both  by  England  and 

65  Bor,  IV.  824,  325.  50  An  abstract  of  the  letter  is  given  by  Bor,  ubi  sup. 


462 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  NXXIII. 


France  in  the  matter  of  the  League.  To  their  surprise  they 
were  informed  that  while  they  were  themselves  furnishing 
four  thousand  men,  according  to  the  contract  signed  by  the 
three  powers,  the  queen  had  in  reality  only  agreed  to  con¬ 
tribute  two  thousand  soldiers,  and  these  only  for  four  months’ 
service,  within  a  very  strict  territorial  limit,  and  under 
promise  of  immediate  reimbursement  of  the  expenses  thus 
incurred.57 

These  facts,  together  with  the  avowal  that  their  mag¬ 
nanimous  ally  had  all  along  been  secretly  treating  for  peace 
with  the  common  enemy,  did  not  make  a  cheerful  impression 
upon  those  plain-spoken  republicans,  nor. was  it  much  con¬ 
solation  to  them  to  receive  the  assurance  that  u  after  the 
king’s  death  his  affection  and  gratitude  towards  the  States 
would  be  found  deeply  engraved  upon  his  heart.” 68 

The  result  of  such  a  future  autopsy  might  seem  a  matter 
of  comparative  indifference,  since  meantime  the  present  effect 
to  the  republic  of  those  deep  emotions  was  a  treacherous 
desertion.  Oalvaert,  too,  who  had  so  long  haunted  the  king 
like  his  perpetual  shadow,  and  who  had  believed  him — at 
least  so  far  as  the  Netherlands  were  concerned — to  be  almost 
without  guile,59  had  been  destined  after  all  to  a  rude  awaken¬ 
ing.  Sick  and  suffering,  he  did  not  cease,  so  long  as  life  was 
in  him,  to  warn  the  States-General  of  the  dangers  impending 
over  them  from  the  secret  negotiations  which  their  royal  all}7 
was  doing  his  best  to  conceal  from  them,  and  as  to  which  he 
had  for  a  time  succeeded  so  dexterously  in  hoodwinking  their 
envoy  himself.  But  the  honest  and  energetic  agent  of  the 
republic  did  not  live  to  see  the  consummation  of  these 
manoeuvres  of  Henry  and  the  pope.  He  died  in  Paris  during 
the  month  of  J une  of  this  year.60 

Certainly  the  efforts  of  Spanish  and  Papal  diplomacy  had 


57  Bor,  ubi  sup.  Vide  antea. 

58  Bor,  ubi  sup. 

59  “  Deurien,  S.M.”  wrote  Calvaert 
in  June,  1596,  “(Sender  jactantie  ge- 
sproken)  bipnen  den  tyt  ick  by  liem 
geweest  ben,  my  luttel  particularitei- 
ten  verborgen  heeft,  seggende  dikmael 


met  expresse  woorden,  en  soo  ick 
geloove  sonder  fictie  ( die  in  hem  cleyn 
is)  [!]  dat  hy  niet  begeerde  de  kennis 
syner  handelingen  desen 


oonog  raa- 


kende,  aen  U.  M.  E.  te  onttrecken.” 
Calvaert  to  the  States-General,  Deven¬ 
ter,  ii.  118.  60  Van  Deventer,  ii.  148. 


1597.  TRAFFIC  OF  THE  STATES  WITH  SPAIN.  463 

not  been  unsuccessful  in  bringing  about  a  dissolution  of 

the  bonds  of  amity  by  which  the  three  powers 

i  ,  ,  ,  i  i  June,  1597. 

seemed  so  lately  to  be  drawing  themselves  very 

closely  together.  The  republic  and  Henry  IY.  were  now  on 
a  most  uncomfortable  footing  towards  each  other.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  queen  was  in  a  very  ill  humour  with  the 
States  and  very  angry  with  Henry.  Especially  the  persistent 
manner  in  which  the  Hollanders  carried  on  trade  with  Spain, 
and  were  at  the  same  time  making  fortunes  for  themselves 
and  feeding  the  enemy,  while  Englishmen,  on  pain  of  death, 
were  debarred  from  participation  in  such  traffic,  excited  great 
and  general  indignation  in  England.  In  vain  was  it  repre¬ 
sented  that  this  trade,  if  prohibited  to  the  commonwealth, 
would  fall  into  the  hands  of  neutral  powers,  and  that  Spain 
would  derive  her  supplies  from  the  Baltic  and  other  regions 
as  regularly  as  ever,  while  the  republic,  whose  whole  life  was 
in  her  foreign  commerce,  would  not  only  become  incapable  of 
carrying  on  the  war  but  would  perish  of  inanition.  The 
English  statesmen  threatened  to  declare  all  such  trade  con¬ 
traband,  and  vessels  engaging  in  it  lawful  prize  to  English 
cruisers.61 

Burghley  declared,  with  much  excitement,  to  Caron,  that 
he,  as  well  as  all  the  council,  considered  the  conduct  of  the 
Hollanders  so  unjustifiable  as  to  make  them  regret  that  their 
princess  had  ever  embarked  with  a  State  which  chose  to  aid 
its  own  enemies  in  the  destruction  of  itself  and  its  allies. 
Such  conduct  was  so  monstrous  that  those  who  were  told  of 
it  would  hardly  believe  it.62 

The  Dutch  envoy  observed  that  there  were  thirty  thousand 
sailors  engaged  in  this  trade,  and  he  asked  the  Lord  Treasurer 
whether  he  proposed  that  these  peojde  should  all  starve  or  be 
driven  into  the  service  of  the  enemy.  Burghley  rejoined  that 
the  Hollanders  had  the  whole  world  beside  to  pursue  their 
traffic  in,  that  they  did  indeed  trade  over  the  whole  world, 

* 

fil  “  Ende  voor  vrybuyt  doen  verklaren  alle  sulcke  schepen,”  &c. — Caron  to 
the  States-General,  24  Sept.  1597,  in  Deventer,  157-161. 

62  Caron’s  despatch,  last  cited. 


464 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXIII. 


and  had  thereby  become  so  extraordinarily,  monstrously  rich 
that  there  was  no  believing  it.G3 

Caron  declared  his  sincere  wish  that  this  was  true,  but 
said,  on  the  contrary,  that  he  knew  too  well  what  extreme 
trouble  and  labour  the  States-General  had  in  providing  for 
the  expenses  of  the  war  and  in  extracting  the  necessary 
funds  from  the  various  communities.  This  would  hardly 
be  the  case  were  such  great  wealth  in  the  land  as  was 
imagined.  But  still  the  English  counsellors  protested  that 
they  would  stop  this  trading  with  the  enemy  at  every 
hazard.04 

On  the  question  of  peace  or  war  itself  the  republican 
diplomatists  were  often  baffled  as  to  the  true  intentions  of 
the  English  Government.  “  As  the  queen  is  fine  and  false/’ 
said  Marquis  Havre,  observing  and  aiding  in  the  various 
intrigues  which  were  weaving  at  Brussels,  “  and  her  council 
much  the  same,  she  is  practising  towards  the  Hollanders 
a  double  stratagem.  On  the  one  hand  she  induces  them  to 
incline  to  a  general  peace.  On  the  other,  her  adherents,  ten 
or  twelve  in  number  of  those  who  govern  Holland  and  have 
credit  with  the  people,  insist '  that  the  true  interest  of  the 
State  is  in  a  continuation  of  the  war.”65 

But  Havre,  adept  in  diplomatic  chicane  as  he  undoubtedly 
was,  would  have  found  it  difficult  to  find  any  man  of  intelli¬ 
gence  or  influence  in  that  rebellious  commonwealth,  of  which 
he  was  once  a  servant,  who  had  any  doubt  on  that  subject. 
It  needed  no  English  argument  to  persuade  Olden-Barneveld, 
and  the  other  statesmen  who  guided  the  destiny  of  the 
republic,  that  peace  would  be  destruction.  Moreover,  there 
is  no  question  that  both  the  queen  and  Burghley  would  have 
been  truly  grateful  had  the  States-General  been  willing  to 
make  peace  and  return  to  the  allegiance  which  they  had  long 
since  spumed. 

Nevertheless  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether  there  were  at 
this  moment  more  of  animosity  in  Elizabeth’s  mind  towards 

6?  Caron’s  despatch,  last  cited.  Ibid. 

6a  Deventer,  169,  from  the  Belgian  Archives.  Havre  to  Archduke  Albert. 


1597.  ELIZABETH  ON" THE  PEACE  QUESTION.  465 

her  backsliding  ally,  with  whom  she  had  so  recently  and 
so  pompously  sworn  an  eternal  friendship,  or  towards  her 
ancient  enemy.  Although  she  longed  for  peace,  she  hardly 
saw  her  way  to  it,  for  she  felt  that  the  secret  movements  of 
Henry  had  in  a  manner  barred  the  path.  She  confessed  to 
the  States'  envoy  that  it  was  as  easy  for  her  to  make  black 
white  as  to  make  peace  with  Spain.66  To  this  Caron  cordi¬ 
ally  assented,  saying  with  much  energy,  “  There  is  as  much 
chance  for  your  Majesty  and  for  us  to  make  peace,  during  the 
life  of  the  present  King  of  Spain,  as  to  find  redemption  in 
hell."67 

To  the  Danish  ambassadors,  who  had  come  to  England  with 
proposals  of  mediation,  the  queen  had  replied  that  the  King 
of  Spain  had  attacked  her  dominions  many  times,  and  had 
very  often  attempted  her  assassination;68  that  after  long 
patience  she  had  begun  to  defend  herself,  and  had  been 
willing  to  show  him  that  she  had  the  courage  and  the  means, 
not  only  to  maintain  herself  against  his  assaults,  but  also 
to  invade  his  realms  ;  that,  therefore,  she  was  not  disposed 
to  speak  first,  nor  to  lay  down  any  conditions.  Yet,  if  she  saw 
that  the  King  of  Spain  had  any  remorse  for  his  former 
offences  against  her,  and  wished  to  make  atonement  for 
them,  she  was  willing  to  declare  that  her  heart  was  not  so 
alienated  from  peace,  but  that  she  could  listen  to  propositions 
on  the  subject.69 

She  said,  too,  that  such  a  peace  must  be  a  general  one, 
including  both  the  King' of  France  and  the  States  of  the 
Netherlands,  for  with  these  powers  she  had  but  lately  made 
an  offensive  and  defensive  league  against  the  King  of  Spain, 
from  which  she  protested  that  for  no  consideration  in  the 
world  would  she  ever  swerve  one  jot. 

Certainly  these  were  words  of  Christian  charity  and  good 
faith,  but  such  professions  are  the  common  staple  of  orations 
and  documents  for  public  consumption.  As  the  accounts 


66  Caron  to  the  States-General, 
Sept.  1597.  Deventer,  ii.  153-156. 

67  Ibid.  156. 

68  “  Ende  seer  dickmael  naer  haer 

vol.  iii. — 2  H 


lyfe  ende  leven  heeft  doen  staen.” — Ca¬ 
ron  to  States-General,  24  Sept.  1597. 
Deventer,  ii.  159.  69  Ibid. 


466 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXIII. 


became  more  ancl  more  minute,  however,  of  Henry’s  intrigues 
with  Albert,  Philip,  and  Clement,  the  queen  grew  more 
angry. 

She  told  Caron  that  she  was  quite  aware  that  the  king 
16  Nov.  had  l°ng  been  communication  with  the  cardinal’s 
1597.  emissaries,  and  that  he  had  *even  sent  some  of  his 
principal  counsellors  to  confer  with  the  cardinal  himself  at 
Arras,  in  direct  violation  of  the  stipulations  of  .the  league. 
She  expressed  her  amazement  at  the  king’s  conduct ;  for 
she  knew  very  well,  she  said,  that  the  league  had  hardly 
been  confirmed  and  sworn  to,  before  he  was  treating  with 
secret  agents  sent  to  him  by  the  cardinal.  u  And  now,”  she 
continued,  “  they  propose  to  send  an  ambassador  to  inform  me 
of  the  whole  proceeding,  and  to  ask  my  advice  and  consent 
in  regard  to  negotiations  which  they  have,  perchance,  entirely 
concluded.” 

She  further  informed  the  republican  envoy  that  the  king 
had  recently  been  taking  the  ground  in  these  dealings  with 
the  common  enemy  ;  that  the  two  kingdoms  of  France  and 
England  must  first  be  provided  for  ;  that  when  the  basis 
between  these  powers  and  Spain  had  been  arranged,  it  would 
be  time  to  make  arrangements  for  the  States,  and  that  it 
would  probably  be  found  advisable  to  obtain  a  truce  of  three 
or  four  years  between  them  and  Spain,  in  which  interval  the 
government  of  the  provinces  might  remain  on  its  actual 
footing.  During  this  armistice  the  King  of  Spain  was  to 
withdraw  all  Spanish  troops  from  the  Netherlands,  in  conse¬ 
quence  of  which  measure  all  distrust  would  by  degrees 
vanish,  and  the  community,  becoming  more  and  more  en¬ 
couraged,  would  in  time  recognise  the  king  for  their  sove¬ 
reign  once  more.70 

This,  according  to  the  information  received  by  Elizabeth 
from  her  resident  minister  in  France,  was  Henry’s  scheme 
for  carrying  out  the  principles  of  the  offensive  and  defensive 
league,  which  only  the  year  before  he  had  so  solemnly  con¬ 
cluded  with  the  Dutch  republic.  Instead  of  assisting  that 
70  Caron  to  States-General,  19  Nov.  1597.  Deventer,  ii.  161-164. 


1597. 


PROBABLE  EFFECT  OF  PEACE  WITH  SPAIN.  457 

commonwealth  in  waging  her  war  of  independence  against 
Spain,  he  would  endeavour  to  make  it^easy  for  her  to  return 
peacefully  to  her  ancient  thraldom.71 

Ihe  queen  asked  Caron  what  he  thought  of  the  project. 
How  could  that  diplomatist  reply  hut  with  polite  scorn  P  Not 
a  year  of  such  an  armistice  would  elapse,  he  said,  before 
the  Spanish  partisans  would  have  it  all  their  own  way  in  the 
Nethei  lands,  and  the  King  of  Spain  would  be  master  of 
the  whole  country.  •  Again  and  again  he  repeated  that 
peace,  so  long  as  Philip  lived,  was  an  impossibility  for  the 
States.  No  doubt  that  monarch  would  gladly  consent  to 
the  proposed  truce,  for  it  would  be  indeed  strange  if  by  * 
means  of  it  he  could  not  so  establish  himself  in  the  provinces 
as  to  easily  overthrow  the  sovereigns  who  were  thus  helping 
him  to  so  advantageous  a  position.72 

The  queen  listened  patiently  to  a  long  and  earnest  remon¬ 
strance  in  this  vein  made  by  the  envoy,  and  assured  him 
that  not  even  to  gain  another  kingdom  would  she  be  the 
cause  of  a  return  of  the  provinces  to  the  dominion  of  Spain. 
She  would  do  her  best  to  dissuade  the  king  from  his  peace 
negotiations  )  but  she  would  listen  to  De  Maisse,  the  new 
special  envoy  from  Henry,  and  would  then  faithfully  report  to 
Caron,  by  word  of  mouth,  the  substance  of  the  conversation. 
The  States- General  did  not  deserve  to  be  deceived,  nor  would 
she  be  a  party  to  any  deception,  unless  she  were  first  cheated 
herself.  u  I  feel  indeed,”  she  added,  u  that  matters  are  not 
always  managed  as  they  should  be  by  your  Government, 
and  that  you  have  not  always  treated  princes,  especially 
myself,  as  we  deserve  to  be  treated.  Nevertheless,  your 
State  is  not  a  monarchy,  and  so  we  must  take  all  things 
into  consideration,  and  weigh  its  faults  against  its  many 
perfections.”73 


71  Caron  to  States-General,  19  Nov. 
1597.  Deventer,  ii.  161-164. 

7*  Ibid. 

73  “  Jck  bevinde  wel  (seide  sy)  dat 
bet  niet  al  reclit  soo  ’t  behoorde  in 
lmnne  regeeringe  toegaet,  en  dat  sy 
niet  altyts  de  Princen  immers  niet  my 


tincteren  soo  wy  wel  in  bun  regart 
verdient  bebben ;  docb  hun  staet  is 
oock  geen  monarcliie,  en  daarom  wy 
moeten  alles  considereren  en  de  faul- 
ten  met  vele  perfectien  die  sy  hebben 
tegen  elkanderlaetengemoeten.,, — Ca¬ 
ron’s  Despatch,  last  cited. 


4G3 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXIII. 


With  this  philosophical — and  in  the  mouth  of  Elizabeth 
Tudor,  surely  very  liberal — reflection,  the  queen  terminated 
the  interview  with  the  republican  envoy. 

Meantime  the  conferences  with  the  special  ambassador  of 
France  proceeded.  For,  so  soon  as  Henry  had  completed 
all  his  arrangements,  and  taken  his  decision  to  accept  the 
very  profitable  peace  offered  to  him  by  Spain,  he  assumed 
that  air  of  frankness  which  so  well  became  him,  and  candidly 
avowed  his  intention  of  doing  what  he  had  already  done. 
Hurault  de  Maisse  arrived  in  England  not  long  before  the 
time  when  the  peace-commissioners  were  about  assembling 
at  Vervins.  He 'was  instructed  to  inform  her  Majesty  that 
he  had  done  his  best  to  bring  about  a  general  alliance  of  the 
European  powers  from  which  alone  the  league  concluded 
between  England,  France,  and  the  Netherlands  would  have 
derived  substantial  strength.74 

But  as  nothing  was  to  be  hoped  for  from  Germany,  as 
England  offered  but  little  assistance,  and  as  France  was  ex¬ 
hausted  by  her  perpetual  conflicts,  it  had  become  necessary 
for  the  king  to  negotiate  for  a  peace.  He  now  wished  to 
prove,  therefore,  to  the  queen,  as  to  a  sister  to  whom  he  was 
under  such  obligations,  that  the  interests  of  England  were 
as  dear  to  him  as  those  of  France. 

The  proof  of  these  generous  sentiments  did  not,  however, 
seem  so  clear  as  could  be  wished,  and  there  were  very  stormy 
debates,  so  soon  as  the  ambassador  found  himself  in  con¬ 
ference  with  her  Majesty’s  counsellors.  The  English  states¬ 
men  bitterly  reproached  the  French  for  having  thus  lightly 
thrown  away  the  alliance  between  the  two  countries,  and 
they  insisted  upon  the  duty  of  the  king  to  fulfil  his  solemn 
engagements. 

The  reply  was  very  frank  and  very  decided.  Kings,  said 
He  Maisse,  never  make  treaties  except  with  the  tacit  condi¬ 
tion  to  embrace  every  thing  that  may  be  useful  to  them, 
and  carefully  to  avoid  every  thing  prejudicial  to  their  in¬ 
terests.75 


74  De  Thou,  xiii.  206,  seqq.,  1. 120. 


75  Ibid. 


1597. 


DUPLICITY  OF  HENRY’S  CONDUCT.  459 

The  corollary  from  this  convenient  and  sweeping  maxim 
was  simple  enough.  The  king  could  not  be  expected  by  his 
allies  to  reject  an  offered  peace  which  was  very  profitable, 
nor  to  continue  a  war  which  was  very  detrimental.  All 
that  they  could  expect  was  that  he  should  communicate  his 
intentions  to  them,  and  this  he  was  now  very  cheerfully  doing. 
Such  in  brief  were  the  statements  of  De  Maisse.76 

The  English  were  indignant.  They  also  said  a  stout  word 
for  the  provinces,  although  it  has  been  made  sufficiently 
clear  that  they  did  not  love  that  upstart  republic.  But  the 
French  ambassador  replied  that  his  master  really  meant 
secretly  to  assist  the  States  in  carrying  on  the  war  until  they 
should  make  an  arrangement.77  He  should  send  them  very 
powerful  succours  for  this  purpose,  and  he  expected  confi¬ 
dently  that  England  wrould  assist  him  in  this  line  of  conduct.7^ 
Thus  Henry  was  secretly  pledging  himself  to  make  under¬ 
hand  but  substantial  war  against  Spain,  with  which  power  he 
was  at  that  instant  concluding  peace,  while  at  the  same  time 
he  was  abandoning  his  warlike  league  with  the  queen  and 
the  republic,  in  order  to  affect  thah  very  pacification.  Truly 
the  morality  of  the  governing  powers  of  the  earth  was  not 
entirely  according  to  the  apostolic  standard. 

The  interviews  between  the  queen  and  the  new  ambassador 
were,  of  course,  on  his  part,  more  courteous  in  tone  than 
those  with  the  counsellors,  but  mainly  to  the  same  effect. 
De  Maisse  stated  that  the  Spanish  king  had  offered  to  restore 
every  place  that  he  held  in  France,  including  Calais,  Brittany, 
and  the  Marquisate  of  Saluces,  and  as  he  likewise  manifested 
a  willingness  to  come  to  favourable  terms  with  her  Majesty 
and  with  the  States,  it  was  obviously  the  duty  of  Henry  to 
make,  these  matters  known  to  her  Majesty,  in  whose  hands 
^vas  thus  placed  the  decision  between  peace  or  continuation 


75  De  Thou,  xiii.  206,  seqq,  1. 120. 

77  Ibid. 

78  “  Qu’en  faisant  la  pais  avec  les 
Espagnols  il  ne  laisseroit  pas  de  four- 
nir  secretemenl  aux  Etats-Generaux 
de  puissans  secours  jusqu’a  ce  que 


leur  apeommodement  fut  fait,  et  qu’il 
souhaitoit  se  joindre  avec  FAngleterre 
pour  les  aider  et  les  soutenir,  soit  en 
pais,  soit  en  guerre.”— De  Tliou,  ubi 
sup. 


470 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXIII. 


of  the  war.79  The  queen  asked  what  was  the  authority  for 
the  supposition  that  England  was  to  be  included  by  Spain  in 
the  pacification.  De  Maisse  quoted  President  Bichardot. 
In  that  case,  the  queen  remarked,  it  was  time  for  her 
to  prepare  for  a  third  Spanish  armada.  When  a  former 
envoy  from  France  had  alluded  to  Bichardot  as  expressing 
the  same  friendly  sentiments  on  the  part  of  his  sovereign  and 
himself,  she  had  replied  by  referring  to  the  sham  negotia¬ 
tions  of  Bourbourg,  by  which  the  famous  invasion  of  1588 
had  been  veiled,  and  she  had  intimated  her  expectation 
that  another  Spanish  fleet  would  soon  be  at  her  throat. 
And  within  three  weeks  of  the  utterance  of  her  prophecy 
the  second  armada,  under  Santa  Gadea,  had  issued  from 
Spain  to  assail  her  realms.  Now  then,  as  Bichardot  was 
again  cited  as  a  peace  negotiator,  it  was  time  to  look  for 
a  third  invasion.  It  was  an  impertinence  for  Secretary  of 
State  Villeroy  to  send  her  word  about  Bichardot.  It  was  not 
an  impertinence  in  King  Henry,  who  understood  war-matters 
better  than  he  did  affairs  of  state,  in  which  kings  were  gene¬ 
rally  governed  by  their  ‘counsellors  and  secretaries,  but  it 
was  very  strange  that  Villeroy  should  be  made  quiet  with  a 
simple  declaration  of  Bichardot.80 

The  queen  protested  that  she  would  never  consent  to  a 
peace  with  Spain,  except  with  the  knowledge  and  consent  of 
the  States.  De  Maisse  replied  that  the  king  was  of  the 
same  mind,  upon  which  her  Majesty  remarked  that  in  that 
case  he  had  better  have  apprised  her  and  the  States  of  his 
intentions  before  treating  alone  and  secretly  with  the  enemy. 
The  envoy  denied  that  the  king  had  been  treating.  He  had 
only  been  listening  to  what  the  King  of  Spain  had  to  propose, 
and  suggesting  his  own  wishes  and  intentions.  The  queen 
rejoined  that  this  was  treating  if  anything  was,  and  certainly 
her  Majesty  was  in  the  right  if  the  term  has  any  meaning 
at  all. 

Elizabeth  further  reproachfully  observed,  that  although 


,9  Caron  to  the  States-General,  10  December,  1597  (O.  S.),  in  Deventer,  ii. 
165-168.  80  Ibid. 


1597.  EXERTIONS  OF  BARNEVELD.  '  471 

the  king  talked  about  continuing  the  war,  he  seemed  really 
tired  .of  that  dangerous  pursuit,  in  which  he  had  exercised 
himself  so  many  long  years,  and  that  he  was  probably  be¬ 
ginning  to  find  a  quiet  and  agreeable  life  more  to  his  taste. 
She  expressed  the  hope,  however,  that  he  would  acquit  him¬ 
self  honourably  towards  herself  and  her  allies,  and  keep  the 
oqths  which  he  had  so  solemnly  sworn  before  God. 

Such  was  the  substance  of  the  queen’s  conversations  with 
De  Maisse,  as  she  herself  subsequently  reported  them  to  the 
States’  envoy.81 

The  republican  statesmen  had  certainly  cause  enough  to 
suspect  Henry’s  intentions,  but  they  did  not  implicitly  trust 
Elizabeth.  They  feared  that  both  king  and  queen  were 
heartily  sick  of  the  war,  and  disposed  to  abandon  the  league, 
while  each  was  bent  on  securing  better  terms  than  the  other 
in  any  negotiations  for  peace.  Barneveld— *on  the  whole  the 
most  sagacious  of  the  men  then  guiding  the  affairs  of  Europe, 
although  he  could  dispose  of  but  comparatively  slender 
resources,  and  was  merely  the  chief  minister  of  a  scarcely 
born  little  commonwealth  of  some .  three  million  souls — was 
doing  his  best  to  save  the  league  and  to  divert  Henry  from 
thoughts  of  peace.  Feeling  that  the  queen,  notwithstanding 
her  professions  to  Caron  and  others,  would  have  gladly  en¬ 
tered  into  negotiations  with  Philip,  had  she  found  the  door  as 
wide  open  as  Henry  had  found  it,  he  did  his  best  to  prevent 
both  his  allies  from  proceeding  farther  in  that  direction.  He 
promised  the  French  envoy  at  the  Hague  that  not  only  would 
the  republic  continue  to  furnish  the  four  thousand  soldiers  as 
stipulated  in  the  league,  but  that  if  Henry  would  recom¬ 
mence  active  operations,  a  States’  army  of  nine  thousand  foot 
and  two  thousand  horse  should  at  once  take  the  field  on  the 
Flemish  frontier  of  France,  and  aid  in  the  campaign  to  the 
full  extent  of  their  resources.82  If  the  king  were  disposed  to 
undertake  the  siege  of  Calais,  the  Advocate  engaged  that  he 
should  be  likewise  energetically  assisted  in  that  enterprise.83 

81  Caron’s  Despatch,  last  cited. 

82  Letters  of  Buzanval,  cited  by  Deventer,  ii.  164,  165.  83  Ibid. 


472 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXIII. 


Nor  was  it  suggested  in  case  the  important  maritime  strong¬ 
hold  were  recovered  that  it  should  be  transferred,  not  to  the 
sovereign  of  France,  hut  to  the  dominions  of  the  republic. 
That  was  the  queen’s  method  of  assisting  an  ally,  hut  it  was 
not  the  practice  of  the  States.  Buzanval,  who  was  quite 
aware  of  his  master’s  decision  to  conclude  peace,  suggested 
Henry’s  notion  of  a  preliminary  and  general  +  truce  for  six 
months.  But  of  course  Barneveld  rejected  the  idea  with 
horror.  He  felt,  as  every  intelligent  statesman  of  the  com¬ 
monwealth  could  not  hut  feel,  that  an  armistice  would  he  a 
death-hlow.  It  would  he  better,  he  said,  for  the  States  to  lose 
one  or  two  towns  than  to  make  a  truce,  for  there  were  so 
many  people  in  the  commonwealth  sure  to  he  dazzled  hy  the 
false  show  of  a  pacification,  that  they  would  \>e  likely,  after 
getting  into  the  suburbs,  to  wish  to  enter  the  heart  of  the 
city.  “If,”  said  the  Advocate,  “  the  French  and  the  English 
know  what  they  are  doing  when  they  are  facilitating  the 
Spanish  dominion  in  the  provinces,  they  would  prefer  to  lose 
a  third  of  their  own  kingdoms  to  seeing  the  Spaniard  absolute 
master  here.”81 

It  was  determined,  in  this  grave  position  of  affairs,  to  send 
a  special  mission  both  to  France  and  to  England  with  the 
Advocate  as  its  chief.  Henry  made  no  objections  to  this 
step,  but,  on  the  contrary,  affected  much  impatience  for  the 
arrival  of  the  envoys,  and  ascribed  the  delay  to  the  intrigues 
of  Elizabeth.  He  sent  word  to  Prince  Maurice  and  to  Barne¬ 
veld  that  he  suspected  the  queen  of  endeavouring  to  get 
before  him  in  negotiating  with  Spain  in  order  to  obtain  Calais 
for  herselfA  And,  in  truth,  Elizabeth  very  soon  afterwards 
informed  Barneveld  that  she  might  really  have  had  Calais, 
and  have  got  the  better  of  the  king  in  these  secret  trans¬ 
actions.86 

Meantime,  while  the  special  mission  to  France  and  Eng- 

1598  ^an(^  WaS  ready  1°  depart,  an  amateur  diplo¬ 

matist  appeared  in  Brussels,  and  made  a  feeble 

81  Letters  of  Buzanval,  cited  by  Deventer,  ii.  1G4,  165. 

85  Verhaal  van  Olden-Barneveld,  in  Deventer,  ii.  171.  86  Ibid. 


1598.  PROPOSITIONS  OF  ALBERT  TO  THE  STATES.  473 

effort  to  effect  a  reconciliation  between  the  republic  and  tbe 
cardinal. 

This  was  a  certain  Van  der  Meulen,  an  Antwerp  merchant^ 
who,  for  religious  reasons,  had  emigrated  to  Leyden,  and  who 
was  now  invited  by  the  cardinal  archduke  to  Brussels  to 
confer  with  his  counsellors  as  to  the  possibility  of  the  rebel¬ 
lious  States  accepting  his  authority.87  For,  as  will  soon  be 
indicated,  Philip  had  recently  resolved  on  a  most  important 
step.  He  was  about  to  transfer  the  sovereignty  of  all  the 
Netherlands  to  his  daughter  Isabella  and  her  destined  hus¬ 
band,  Cardinal  Albert.  It  would,  obviously,  therefore,  be  an 
excessively  advantageous  arrangement  for  those  new  sove¬ 
reigns  if  the  rebellious  States  would  join  hands  with  the 
obedient  provinces,  accept  the  dominion  of  Albert  and  Isabella^ 
and  give  up  their  attempt  to  establish  a  republican  govern¬ 
ment.  Accordingly  the  cardinal  had  intimated  that  the 
States  would  be  allowed  the  practice  of  their  religion,  while 
the  military  and  civil  functionaries  might  retain  office.  He 
even  suggested  that  he  would  appoint  Maurice  of  Nassau  his 
stadh older  for  the  northern  provinces,  unless  he  should  prefer 
a  high  position  in  the  Imperial  armies.83  Such  was  the 
general  admiration  felt  in  Spain  and  elsewhere  for  the  mili¬ 
tary  talents  of  the  prince,  that  he  would  probably  be  ap¬ 
pointed  commander-in-chief  of  the  forces  against  Mahomet.89 
Van  der  Meulen  duly  reported  all  these  ingenious  schemes  to 
the  States,  but  the  sturdy  republicans  only  laughed  at  them. 
They  saw  clearly  enough  through  such  slight  attempts  to  sow 
discord  in  their  commonwealth,  and  to  send  their  great  chief¬ 
tain  to  Turkey. 

A  most  affectionate  letter,  written  by  the  cardinal-arch¬ 
duke  to  the  States-General,  inviting  them  to  accept  his 
sovereignty,  and  another  from  the  obedient  provinces  to  the 
united  States  of  the  same  purport,  remained  unanswered.99 

But  the  Antwerp  merchant,  in  his  interviews  with  the 
crafty  politicians  who  surrounded  the  cardinal,  was  able  at 
least  to  obtain  some  insight  into  the  opinions  prevalent  at 


87  Bor,  IV.  468. 


88  Ibid. 


89  Ibid. 


90  Ibid. 


474 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXIII. 


Brussels  ;  and  these  were  undoubtedly  to  the  effect  that  both 
England  and  France  were  willing  enough  to  abandon  the 
cause  of  thq  Netherlands,  provided  only  that  they  could 
obtain  satisfactory  arrangements  for  themselves. 

Van  der  Meulen  remarked  to  Richardot  that  in  all  their 
talk  about  a  general  peace  nothing  had  been  said  of  the 
Queen  of  England,  to  whom  the  States  were  under  so  great 
obligations,  and  without  whom  they  would  never  enter  into 
any  negotiations. 

Richardot  replied  that  the  queen  had  very  sagaciously 
provided  for  the  safety  of  her  own  kingdom,  and  had  kept  up 
the  fire  everywhere  else  in  order  to  shelter  herself.  There 
was  more  difficulty  for  this  lady,  he  said,  than  for  any  of  the 
rest.  She  had  shown  herself  very  obstinate,  and  had  done 
them  a  great  deal  of  mischief.  They  knew  very  well  that 
the  King  of  France  did  not  love  her.  Nevertheless,  as  they 
had  resolved  upon  a  general  peace,  they  were  willing  to  treat 
with  her  as  well  as  with  the  others.91 


81  Verliaal  van  Van  der  Meulen,  cited  by  Deventer,  ii.  173. 


1598. 


MISSION  OF  THE  ADVOCATE. 


475 


CHAPTER  XXXI Y. 

Mission  of  the  States  to  Henry  to  prevent  tlie  consummation  of  peace  with 
Spain  —  Proposal  of  Henry  to  elevate  Prince  Maurice  to  the  sovereignty 
of  the  States  —  Embarkation  of  the  States’ envoys  for  England — Their 

interview  with  Queen  Elizabeth  —  Return  of  the  envoys  from  England _ 

Demand  of  Elizabeth  for  repayment  of  her  advances  to  the  republic  — 
Second  embassy  to  England  —  Final  arrangement  between  the  Queen 
and  the  States. 

The  great  Advocate  was  now  to  start  on  liis  journey  in 
order  to  make  a  supreme  effort  both  with  Henry  and  with 
Elizabeth  to  prevent  the  consummation  of  this  fatal  peace. 
Admiral  Justinus  of  Nassau,  natural  son  of  William  the 
Silent,  was  associated  with  Barneveld  in  the  mission,  a  brave 
fighting  man,  a  staunch  patriot,  and  a  sagacious  counsellor ; 
hut  the  Advocate  on  this  occasion,  as  in  other  vital  emer¬ 
gencies  of  the  commonwealth,  was  all  in  all. 

The  instructions  of  the  envoys  were  simple.  They  were  to 
summon  the  king  to  fulfil  his  solemnly  sworn  covenants  with 
the  league.  The  States-General  had  never  doubted,  they 
said,  that  so  soon  as  the  enemy  had  begun  to  feel  the  effects 
of  that  league  he  would  endeavour  to  make  a  composition 
with  one  or  other  of  the  parties  in  order  to  separate  them, 
and  to  break  up  that  united  strength  which  otherwise  he 
could  never  resist.  The  king  was  accordingly  called  upon  to 
continue  the  war  against  the  common  enemy,  and  the  States- 
General  offered,  over  and  above  the  four  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  florins  promised  by  them  for  the  support  of  the  four 
thousand  infantry  for  the  year  1598,  to  bring  their  whole 
military  power,  horse  and  foot,  into  the  field  to  sustain  his 
Majesty  in  the  war,  whether  separately  or  in  conjunction, 
whether  in  the  siege  of  cities  or  in  open  campaigns.1  Cer¬ 
tainly  they  could  hardly  offer  fairer  terms  than  these. 


1  Instructions,  &c.,  in  Deventer,  ii.  177-181. 


476 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXIV. 


Henry  had  complained,  and  not  unreasonably,  that  Eliza¬ 
beth  had  made  no  offers  of  assistance  for  carrying  on  the  war 
either  to  Fonquerolles  or  to  Hurault  de  Maisse  ;  hut  he  cer¬ 
tainly  could  make  no  reproach  of  that  nature  against  the 
republic,  nor  assign  their  lukewarmness  as  an  excuse  for  his 
desertion. 

The  envoys  were  ready  to  take  their  departure  for  France 
on  the  last  day  of  January. 

It  might  he  a  curious  subject  to  consider  how  far  historical 
events  are  modified  and  the  world's  destiny  affected  by  the 
different  material  agencies  which  man  at  various  epochs  has 
had  at  his  disposal.  The  human  creature  in  his  passions 
and  ambitions,  his  sensual  or  sordid  desires,  his  emotional  and 
moral  nature,  undergoes  less  change  than  might  be  hoped 
from  age  to  age.  The  tyrant,  the  patriot,  the  demagogue,  the 
voluptuary,  the  peasant,  the  trader,  the  intriguing  politician, 
the  hair-splitting  diplomatist,  the  self-sacrificing  martyr,  the 
self-seeking  courtier,  present  essentially  one  type  in  the 
twelfth,  the  sixteenth,  the  nineteenth,  or  any  other  centuiy. 
The  human  tragi-comedy  seems  ever  to  repeat  itself  with 
the  same  bustle,  with  the  same  excitement  for  immediate 
interests,  for  the  development  of  the  instant  plot  or  passing 
episode,  as  if  the  universe  began  and  ended  with  each 
generation — as  in  reality  it  would  appear  to  do  for  the  great 
multitude  of  the  actors.  There  seems  but  a  change  of  masks, 
of  costume,  of  phraseology,  combined  with  a  noisy  but  eternal 
monotony.  Yet  while  men  are  produced  and  are  whirled 
away  again  in  endless  succession,  Man  remains,  and  to  all 
appearance  is  perpetual  and  immortal  even  on  this  earth. 
Whatever  science  acquires  man  inherits.  Whatever  stead¬ 
fastness  is  gained  for  great  moral  truths  which  change  not 
through  the  ages — however  they  may  be  thought,  in  dark  or 
falsely  brilliant  epochs,  to  resolve  themselves  into  elemental 
vapour — gives  man  a  securer  foothold  in  his  onward  and 
upward  progress.  The  great,  continuous  history  of  that  pro¬ 
gress  is  not  made  up  of  the  reigns  of  kings  or  the  lives  of 
politicians,  with  whose  names  history  has  often  found  it  con- 


1598. 


477 


DEPARTURE  OF  THE  ENVOYS  FOR  FRANCE. 

venient  to  mark  its  epochs.  These  are  hut  milestones  on  the 
turnpike.  Human  progress  is  over  a  vast  field,  and  it  is 
only  at  considerable  intervals  that  a  retrospective  view  en¬ 
ables  us  to  discern  whether  the  movement  has  been  slow  or 
rapid,  onward  or  retrograde.  * 

The  record  of  our  race  is  essentially  unwritten.  What  we 
call  history  is  but  made  up  of  a  few  scattered  fragments,  while 
it  is  scarcely  given  to  human  intelligence  to  comprehend  the 
great  whole.  Yet  it  is  strange  to  reflect  upon  the  leisurely 
manner  in  which  great  affairs  were  conducted  in  the  period 
with  which  we  are  now  occupied,  as  compared  with  the  fever 
and  whirl  of  our  own  times,  in  which  the  stupendous  powers 
of  steam  and  electricity  are  ever  ready  to  serve  the  most 
sublime  or  the  most  vulgar  purposes  of  mankind.  Whether 
there  were  ever  a  critical  moment  in  which  a  rapid  change 
might  have  been  effected  in  royal  or  national  councils,  had 
telegraphic  wires  and  express  trains  been  at  the  command  of 
Henry,  or  Burghley,  or  Barneveld,  or  the  Cardinal  Albert, 
need  not  and  cannot  be  decided.  It  is  almost  diverting' 
however,  to  see  how  closely  the  intrigues  of  cabinets,  the 
movements  of  armies,  the  plans  of  patriots,  were  once  de¬ 
pendent  on  those  natural  elements  over  which  man  has  now 
gained  almost  despotic  control. 

Here  was  the  republic  intensely  eager  to  prevent,  with  all 
speed,  the  consummation  of  a  treaty  between  its  ally  and  its 
enemy— a  step  which  it  was  feared  might  be  fatal  to  its 
national  existence,  and  concerning  which  there  seemed  a 
momentary  hesitation.  Yet  Barneveld  and  Justinus  of  Nassau 
although  ready  on  the  last  day  of  January,  were  not  able  to 
sail  from  the  Brill  to  Dieppe  until  the  18th  March,  on  account 
of  a  persistent  south-west  wind. 

After  forty-six  days  of  waiting,  the  envoys,  accompanied 
by  Buzanval,  Henry  s  resident  at  the  Hague,  were  ig 
at  last,  on  the  18th  March,  enabled  to  set  sail 
with  a  favouiable  breeze.  As  it  was  necessary  for  travellers 
in  that  day  to  provide  themselves  with  every  possible  material 
for  their  journey— carriages,  horses,  hosts  of  servants,  and 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXIV. 

beds,  fortunate  enough  if  they  found  roads  and  occasionally 

food _ Barneveld  and  Nassau  were  furnished  with  three  ships 

of  war,  while  another  legation  on  its  way  to  England  had 
embarked  in  two  other  vessels  of  the  same  class.  A  fleet  of 
forty  or  fifty  merchantmen  sailed  under  their  convoy.  De¬ 
parting  from  the  Brill  in  this  imposing  manner,  they  sailed 
by  Calais,  varying  the  monotony  of  the  voyage  by  a  trifling 
sea-fight  with  some  cruisers  from  that  Spanish  port,  neither 
side  receiving  any  damage.2 

Landing  at  Dieppe  on  the  morning  of  the  20th,  the 
envoys  were  received  with  much  ceremony  at  the  city  gates 
by  the  governor  of  the  place,  who  conducted  them  in  a  stately 
manner  to  a  house  called  the  king's  mansion,  which  he 
politely  placed  at  their  disposal.  “  As  we  learned,  however," 
says  Barneveld,  with  grave  simplicity,  “that  there  was  no 
furniture  whatever  in  that  royal  abode,  we  thanked  his 
Excellency,  and  declared  that  we  would  rather  go  to  a 
tavern." 

After  three  days  of  repose  and  preparation  in  Dieppe 
23  March,  they  started  at  dawn  on  their  journey  to  Bouen, 
1598.  where  they  arrived  at  sundown. 

On  the  next  morning  but  one  they  set  off  again  on  their 
travels,  and  slept  that  night  at  Louviers.  Another 
25  Marcll‘  long  day's  journey  brought  them  to  Evreux.  On 
the  27th  they  came  to  Dreux,  on  the  28th  to  Chartres,  and 
on  the  29th  to  Chateaudun.  On  the  30th,  having  started 
an  hour  before  sunrise,  they  were  enabled  after  a  toilsome 
journey  to  reach  Blois  at  an  hour  after  dark.  Exhausted 
with  fatigue,  they  reposed  in  that  city  for  a  day,  and  on  the 
1st  April  proceeded,  partly  by  the  river  Loire  and  partly  by 


2  The  journey  and  the  whole  pro¬ 
gress  of  the  negotiations  have  been  mi¬ 
nutely  described  by  Olden-Barneveld, 
in  his  Report  to  the  States. (general, 
made  5  June,  1598. 

“  Verhaal  van  ons  Justinus  ende 
Johan  van  Olden-Barnevelt  van  het 
besoigne  gevallen  in  onse  Legatie  aan 
de  Con.  Mat.  van  Vranckryck  gedaen 
in  den  jaere  1598  (Minuut  van  Olden- 


Barnevelt).” 

Of  this  very  important  MS.,  long 
unpublished,  I  possess  a  copy,  taken 
from  the  original  in  the  royal  Archives 
of  the  Hague.  Subsequently,  how¬ 
ever,  it  has  been  printed,  for  the  first 
time,  I  believe,  by  Deventer,  in  his 
valuable  collection,  No.  cxvi.  vol.  ii. 
pp.  170-245. 


1598. 


DELAYS  OF  THE  VOYAGE. 


479 


tlie  road,  as  far  as  Tours.  Here  they  were  visited  by  nobody, 
said  Barneveld,  but  tiddlers  and  drummers,  and  were  execrably 
lodged.  Nevertheless  they  thought  the  town  in  other  respects 
agreeable,  and  apparently  beginning  to  struggle  out  of  the 
general  desolation  of  France.  On  the  2nd  April  they  slept 
at  Langeais,  and  on  the  night  of  the  3rd  reached  Saumur, 
where  they  were  disappointed  at  the  absence  of  the  illustrious 
Duplessis  Mornay,  then  governor  of  that  city.  A  glance  at 
any  map  of  France  will  show  the  course  of  the  journey 
taken  by  the  travellers,  which,  after  very  hard  work  and  great 
fatigue,  had  thus  brought  -them  from  Dieppe  to  Saumur  in 
about  as  much  time  as  is  now  consumed  by  an  average  voyage 
from  Europe  to  America.  In  their  whole  journey  from  Hol¬ 
land  to  Saumur,  inclusive  of  the  waiting  upon  the  wind  and 
other  enforced  delays,  more  than  two  months  had  been  con¬ 
sumed.  Twenty-four  hours  would  suffice  at  present  for  the 
excursion. 

At  Saumur  they  received  letters  informing  them  that  the 
king  was  cc  expecting  them  with  great  devotion  at  Angiers.” 
A  despatch  from  Cecil,  who  was  already  with  Henry,  also 
apprised  them  that  he  found  “  matters  entirely  arranged  for 
a  peace.”  This  would  be  very  easily  accomplished,  he  said, 
for  I  ranee  and  England,  but  the  great  difficulty  was  for  the 
Netherlands.  He  had  come  to  France  principally  for  the 
sake  of  managing  affairs  for  the  advantage  of  the  States,  but 

he  begged  the  envoys  not  to  demean  themselves  as  if  entirely 
bent  on  war.3 

They  arrived  at  Angiers  next  day  before  dark,  and  were 
met  at  a  league's  distance  from  the  gates  by  the 
governor  of  the  castle,  attended  by  young  '  Prince  4  ApriL 
Fredeiic  Hemy  of  Nassau,  followed  by  a  long  train  of  nobles 
and  mounted  tioops.  ^Welcomed  in  this  stately  manner  on 
behalf  of  the  king,  the  envoys  were  escorted  to  the  lodgings 
piovided  for, them  in  the  city.  The  same  evening  they 
waited  on  the  widowed  princess  of  Orange,  Louisa  of  Coligny, 
then  residing  temporarily  with  her  son  in  Angiers,  and  were 

3  Verliaal,  &c. 


480 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXIV. 


informed  by  her  that  the  king's  mind  was  irrevocably  fixed 
on  peace.  She  communicated,  however,  the  advice  of  her 
step-son  in  law,  the  Duke  of  Bouillon,  that  they  should  openly 
express  their  determination  to  continue  the  war,  notwith¬ 
standing  that  both  their  Majesties  of  England  and  France 
wished  to  negotiate.  Thus  •  the  counsels  of  Bouillon  to  the 
envoys  were  distinctly  opposed  to  those  of  Cecil,  and  it  was 
well  known  to  them  that  the  duke  was  himself  sincerely 
anxious  that  the  king  should  refuse  the  pacific  offers  of 
Spain. 

Next  morning,  5th  April,  they  were  received  at  the  gates 
of  the  castle  by  the  governor  of  Anjou  and  the  commandant 
of  the  citadel  of  Angiers,  attended  by  a  splendid  retinue,  and 
were  conducted  to  the  king,  who  was  walking  in  the  garden 
of  the  fortress.  Henry  received  them  with  great  demonstra¬ 
tions  of  respect,  assuring  them  that  he  considered  the  States- 
General  the  best  and  most  faithful  friends  that  he  possessed 
in  the  world,  and  that  he  had  always  been  assisted  by  them 
in  time  of  liis  utmost  need  with  resoluteness  and  affection. 

The  approach  of  the  English  ambassador,  accompanied  by 
the  Chancellor  of  France  and  several  other  persons,  soon 
brought  the  interview  to  a  termination.  Barneveld  then  pre¬ 
sented  several  gentlemen  attached  to  the  mission,  especially 
his  son  and  Hugo  Grotius,  then  a  lad  of  fifteen,  but  who  had 
already  gained  such  distinction  at  Leyden  that  Scaliger, 
Pontanus,  Heinsius,  Dousa,  and  other  professors,  foretold 
that  he  would  become  more  famous  than  Erasmus.  They 
were  all  very  cordially  received  by  the  king,  who  subse¬ 
quently  bestowed  especial  marks  of  his  consideration  upon 
the  youthful  Grotius. 

The  same  day  the  betrothal  of  Monsieur  Caesar  with  the 
daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Mercoeur  was  celebrated,  and  there 
was  afterwards  much  dancing  and  banqueting  at  the  castle. 
It  was  obvious  enough  to  the  envoys  that  the  matter  of  peace 
and  war  was  decided.  The  general  of  the  Franciscans,  sent 
by  the  pope,  had  been  flitting  very  busily  for  many  months 
between  Borne,  Madrid,  Brussels,  and  Paris,  and  there  could 


1398. 


PEACE  NEGOTIATIONS. 


481 


be  little  doubt  that  every  detail  of  the  negotiations  between 
France  and  Spain  had  been  arranged  while  Olden-Barneveld 
and  his  colleague  had  been  waiting  for  the  head- wind  to  blow 
itself  out  at  the  Brill. 

Nevei  theless  no  treaty  had  as  yet  been  signed,  and  it 
was  the  business  of  the  republican  diplomatists  to* 
prevent  the  signature  if  possible.  They  felt,  how-  7ApriL 
ever,  that  they  were  endeavouring  to  cause  water  to  run  up 
hill.  Yilleroy,  De  Maisse,  and  Buzanval  came  to  them  to 
recount,  by  the  king's  order,  everything  that  had  taken  place. 
This  favour  was,  however,  the  less  highly  appreciated  by 
them,  as  they  felt  that  the  whole  world  was  in  a  very  short 
time  to  he  taken  as  well  into  the  royal  confidence. 

These  French  politicians  stated  that  the  king,  after  receiving  . 
the  most  liberal  offers  of  peace  on  the  part  of  Spain,  had  com¬ 
municated  all  the  facts  to  the  queen,  and  had  proposed,  not¬ 
withstanding  these  most  profitable  overtures,  to  continue  the 
war  as .  long  as  her  Majesty  and  the  States-General  would 
assist  him  in  it.  De  Maisse  had  been  informed,  however,  by 
the  queen  that  she  had  no  means  to  assist  the  king  withal,  and 
was,  on  the  contrary,  very  well  disposed  to  make  peace.4  The 
lord  treasurer  had  avowed  the  same  opinions  as  his  sovereign 
had  declared  himself  to  be  a  man  of  peace,  and  had  exclaimed 
that  peace  once  made  he  would  sing  “Nunc  dimitte  servum 
tuum  Domine.'  5  Thereupon,  at  the  suggestion  of  the  legate 
negotiations  had  begun  at  Vervins,  and  although  nothing  was 
absolutely  concluded,  yet  Sir  Robert  Cecil,  having  just  been 
sent  as  special  ambassador  from  the  queen,  had  brought  no 
propositions  whatever  of  assistance  in  carrying  on  the  war, 
but  plenty  of  excuses  about  armadas,  Irish  rebellions,  and 
the  want  of  funds.  There  was  nothing  in  all  this,  they  said, 
but  want  of  good  will.  The  queen  had  done  nothing  and 
would  do  nothing  for  the  league  herself,  nor  .would  she 
solicit  for  it  the  adherence  of  other  kings  and  princes.  The 
king,  by  making  peace,  could  restore  his  kingdom  to  pros¬ 
perity,  relieve  the  distress  of  his  subjects,  and  get  back  all  his 
4  Verliaal,  &c.,  199.  5  Ibid 

VOL.  III. — 2  I 


4g2  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXIV. 

lost  cities— Calais,  Ardres,  Donrlens,  Blavet,  and  many  more 
—without  any  expense  of  treasure  or  of  blood. 

Certainly  there  was  cogency  in  this  reasoning  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  French  king,  .^ut  it  would  have  been  as 
well  to  state,  when  he  was  so  pompously  making  a  league  for 
offensive  and  defensive  war,  that  his  real  interests  and  his 
real  purposes  were  peace.  Much  excellent  diplomacy,  much 
ringing  of  hells,  firing  of  artillery,  and  singing  of  anthems  in 
royal  chapels,  and  much  disappointment  to  honest  Dutchmen, 
might  have  thus  been  saved;  It  is  also  instructive  to  observe 
the  difference  between  the  accounts  of  De  Maisse's  negotiations 
in  England  given  by  that  diplomatist  himself,  and  those 
rendered  by  the  queen  to  the  States'  envoy. 

Of  course  the  objurgations  of  the  Hollanders  that  the  king, 
in  a  very  fallacious  hope  of  temporary  gain  to  himself,  was 
about  to  break  his  solemn  promises  to  his  allies  and  leave 
them  to  their  fate,  drew  but  few  tears  down  the  iron  cheeks 
of  such  practised  diplomatists  as  Villeroy  and  his  friends. 

The  envoys  visited  De  Bosny,  who  assured  them  that  he 
was  very  much  their  friend,  but  gave  them  to  understand 
that  there  was  not  the  slightest  possibility  of  inducing  the 
king  to  break  off  the  negotiations. 

Before  taking  final  leave  of  his  Majesty  they  concluded,  by 
advice  of  the  Princess  of  Orange  and  of  Buzanval,  to  make 
the  presents  which  they  had  brought  with  them  from  the 
States-Gfeneral.  Accordingly  they  sent,  through  the  hands 
of  the  princess,  four  pieces  of  damask  linen  and  two  pieces  of 
fine  linen  to  the  king's  sister,  Madame  Catherine,  two  pieces 
of  linen  to  Villeroy,  and  two  to  the  beautiful  G-abrielle.  The 
two  remaining  pieces  were  bestowed  upon  Buzanval  for  his 
pains  in  accompanying  them  on  the  journey  and  on  their 
arrival  at  court.7 

The  incident  shows  the  high  esteem  in  which  the  Nether- 
land  fabrics  were  held  at  that  period. 

There  was  a  solemn  conference  at  last  between  the  leading 
counsellors  of  the  king,  the  chancellor,  the  Dukes  of  Es~ 

1  Verliaal,  &c.,  201. 


1598.  FRUITLESSNESS  OF  THE  CONFERENCE.  433 

pernon  and  Bouillon,  Count  Scbpmberg,  and  De  Sancy, 
Plessis,  Buzanval,  Maisse,  the  Dutch  envoys,  and  the  English 
ambassador  and  commissioner  Herbert.  Cecil  presided,  and 
Barneveld  once  more  went  over  the  whole  ground,  resuming 
with  his  usual  vigour  all  the  arguments  by  which  the  king's 
interest  and  honour  were  proved  to  require  him  to  desist 
Irom  the  peace  negotiations.  And  the  orator  had  as  much 
success  as  is  usual  with  those  who  argue  against  a  foregone 
conclusion.  Everyone  had  made  up  his  mind.  Everyone 
knew  that  peace  was  made.  It  is  unnecessary,  therefore,  to 
repeat  the  familiar  train  of  reasoning.  It  is  superfluous  to 
say  that  the  conference  was  barren.  On  the  same  evening 
Villeroy  called  on  the  States'  envoys,  and  informed  them 

plainly,  on  the  part  of  the  king,  that  his  Majesty  had  fully 
made  up  his  mind. 

On  the  23id  April  three  mortal  weeks  having  thus  been 
wasted  in  diplomatic  trifling — Barneveld  was  admitted  to  his 
Majesty’s  dressing-room.  The  Advocate  at  the  king’s  request 
came  without  his  colleague,  and  was  attended  only  by  his 
son.  No  other  persons  were  present  in  the  chamber,  save 
Buzanval  and  Beringen.  The  king  on  this  occasion  confirmed 
what  had  so  recently  been  stated  by  Villeroy.  He  had 
thoroughly  pondered,  he  said,  all  the  arguments  used  by  the 
States  to  dissuade  him  from  the  negotiation,  and  had  found 
them  of  much  weight.  The  necessities  of  his  kingdom,  how¬ 
ever,  compelled  him  to  accept  a  .period  of  repose.  He  would 
not,  however,  in  the  slightest  degree  urge  the  States  to  join 
m  the  treaty.  He  desired  their  security,  and  would  aid  in 
maintaining  it.  What  had  most  vexed  him  was  that  the 
Protestants  with  great  injustice  accused  him  of  intending  to 
make  war  upon  them.  But  innumerable  and  amazing  reports 
were  flying  abroad,  both  among  his  own  subjects,  the  English, 
and  the  enemies’  spies,  as  to  these  secret  conferences.  He 
then  said  that  he  would  toll  the  Duke  of  Bouillon  to  speak 
with  Sir  Robert  Cecil  concerning  a  subject  which  now  for  the 
first  time  he  would  mention  privately  to  Olden-Barneveld. 

The  king  then  made  a  remarkable  and  unexpected  sug- 


4g4  the  united  Netherlands.  chap,  xxxiv. 

gestion.  Alluding  to  the  constitution  of  ‘the  Netherlands, 
he  remarked  that  a  popular  government  in  such'  emergencies 
as  those  then  existing  was  subject  to  more  danger  than 
monarchies  were,  and  he  asked  the  Advocate  if  he  thought 
there  was  no  disposition  to  elect  a  prince.8 

Barneveld  replied  that  the  general  inclination  was  rather 
for  a  good  republic.  The  government,  however,  he  said, 
was  not  of  the  people,  hut  aristocratic,  and  the  state  was 
administered  according  to  laws  and  charters  by  the  prin¬ 
cipal  inhabitants,  whether  nobles  or  magistrates  of  cities. 
Since  the  death  of  the  late  Prince  of  Orange,  and  the  offer 
made  to  the  King  of  France,  and  subsequently  to  the  Queen 
of  England,  of  the  sovereignty,  there  had  been  no  more  talk 
on  that  subject,  and  to  discuss  again  so  delicate  a  matter 
might  cause  divisions  and  other  difficulties  in  the  State.9 

Henry  then  spoke  of  Prince  Maurice,  and  asked  whether, 
if  he  should  be  supported  by  the  Queen  of  England  and 
the  King  of  France,  it  would  not  be  possible  to  confer  the 
sovereignty  upon  him. 

Here  certainly  was  an  astounding  question  to  be  discharged 
like  a  pistol-shot  full  in  the  face  of  a  republican  minister. 

The  answer  of  the  Advocate  was  sufficiently  adroit  if  not 
excessively  sincere. 

If  your  Majesty,  said  he,  together  with  her  Majesty  the 
queen,  think  the  plan  expedient,  and  are  both  willing  on 
this  footing  to  continue  the  war,  to  rescue  all  the  Netherlands 
from  the  hands  of  the  ■  Spaniards  and  their  adherents,  and 
thus  render  the  States  eternally  obliged  to  the  sovereigns 
and  kingdoms  of  France  and  England,  my  lords  the  States- 
General  would  probably  be  willing  to  accept  this  advice.10 

But  the  king  replied  by  repeating  that  repose  was  indis¬ 
pensable  to  him.11 

Without  inquiring  for  the  present  whether  the  project  of 
elevating  Maurice  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  Netherlands,  at 
the  expense  of  the  republican  constitution,  was  in  harmony 

8  Verliaal,  &c.-,  218,  and  Toespraak  van  Olden-Barnevelt  tot  Elizabeth.  De¬ 
venter,  ii.  246.  9  Toespraak,  &c.  Deventer,  ii.  246.  10  Ibid.  11  Ibid. 


1598.  DEPARTURE  OF  THE  ENVOYS. 


485 


or  not  with  the  private  opinions  of  Barneveld  at  that  period, 
t  -d  must  he  admitted  that  the  condition  he  thus  suggested  was 
a  -very  safe  one  to  offer.  He  had  thoroughly  satisfied  himself 
during  the  period  in  which  he  had  been  .baffled  by  the  south¬ 
west  gales  at  the  Brill  and  by  the  still  more  persistent  head¬ 
winds  which  he  had  found  prevailing  at  the  French  court, 
that  it  was  hopeless  to  strive  for  that  much-desired  haven,  a 
general  war.  .The  admiral  and  himself  might  as  well  have 
endeavoured  to  persuade  Mahomet  III.  and  Sigismund  of 
Poland  to  join  the  States  in  a  campaign  against  Cardinal 
Albert,  as  to  hope  for  the  same  good  offices  from  Elizabeth 
and  Henry. 

Having  received  exactly  the  answer  which  he  expected,  he 
secretly  communicated,  next  day,  to  Cecil  the  proposition 
thus  made  by  the  king.  Subsequently  he  narrated  the 
whole  conversation  to  the  Queen  of  England. 

On  the  27th  April  both  Barneveld  and  Nassau  were  ad¬ 
mitted  to  the  royal  dressing-room  in  Nantes  citadel 
for  a  final  audience.  Here,  after  the  usual  common-  37  ApriL 
places  concerning  his  affection  for  the  Netherlands,  and  the 
bitter  necessity  which  compelled  him  to  desert  the  alliance, 
Henry  again  referred  to  his  suggestion  in  regard  to  Prince 
Maurice  ;  urging  a  change  from  a  republican  to  a  monarchical 
form  of  government  as  the  best  means  of  preserving  the 
State. 

The  envoys  thanked  the  king  for  all  the  honours  conferred 
upon  them,  hut  declared  themselves  grieved  to  the  heart  by 
his  refusal  to  grant  their  request.  The  course  pursued  by 
his  Majesty,  they  said,  would  be  found  very  hard  of  digestion 
by  the  States,  both  in  regard  to  the  whole  force  of  the  enemy 
which  would  now  come  upon  their  throats,  and  because  of  the 
bad  example  thus  set  for  other  powers. 

They  then  took  leave,  with  the  usual  exchange  of  compli¬ 
ments.  At  their  departure  his  Majesty  personally  conducted 
them  through  various  apartments  until  they  came  to  the 
chamber  of  his  mistress,  the  Duchess  of  Beaufort,  then  lying 
in  childbed.  Here  he  drew  wide  open  the  bed-curtains,  and 


486 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXIV. 


bade  them  kiss  the  lady.  They  complied,  and  begging  the 
duchess  to  use  her  influence  in  their  behalf,  respectfully  bade 
her  farewell.  She  promised  not  to  forget  their  request,  and 
thanked  them  for  the  presents  of  damask  and  fine  linen. 

Such  was  the  result  of  the  mission  of  the  great  Advocate 
and  his  colleague  to  Henry  IV.,  from  which  so  much  had 
been  hoped  ;  and  for  anything  useful  accomplished,  after  such 
an  expenditure  of  time,  money,  and  eloquence,  the  whole 
transaction  might  have  begun  and  ended  in  this  touching 
interview  with  the  beautiful  Gabrielle. 

On  the  19th  of  May  the  envoys  embarked  at  Dieppe  for 

May  England,  and  on  the  25th  were  safely  lodged  with 

•  the  resident  minister  of  the  republic,  Noel  de 

Caron,  at  the  village  of  Clapham.12 

Having  so  ill-succeeded  in  their  attempts  to  prevent  the 
treaty  between  France  and  Spain,  they  were  now  engaged 
in  what  seemed  also  a  forlorn  hope,  the  preservation  of  their 
offensive  and  defensive  alliance  with  England.  They  were 
well  aware  that  many  of  the  leading  counsellors  of  Elizabeth, 
especially  Burghley  and  Buckhurst,  were  determined  upon 
peace.  They  knew  that  the  queen  was  also  heartily  weary 
of  the  war  and  of  the  pugnacious  little  commonwealth  which 
had  caused  her  so  much  expense.  But  they  knew,  too,  that 
Henry,  having  now  secured  the  repose  of  his  own  kingdom, 
was  anything  but  desirous  that  his.  deserted  allies  should 
enjoy  the  same  advantage.  The  king  did  not  cease  to 
assure  the  States  that  he  would  secretly  give  them  assistance 
in  their  warfare  against  his  new  ally,  while  Secretary  of 
State  Villeroy,  as  they  knew,  would  place  every  possible 
impediment  in  the  way  of  the  queen’s  negotiations  with 
Spain.13 

Elizabeth,  on  her  part,  was  vexed  with  everybody.  What 
the  States  most  feared  was  that  she  might,  in  her  anger  or 
her  avarice,  make  use  of  the  cautionary  towns  in  her  nego¬ 
tiations  with  Philip.  At  any  rate,  said  Francis  Aerssens, 

12  Verliaal,  &c.,  238. 

13  Aerssens  to  Olden-Barneveld,  29  May,  1598,  in  Deventer,  248-250. 


1593. 


487 


ELIZABETH  DISPOSED  FOR  PEACE. 


then  States’  minister  in  France,  she  will  bring  us  to  the 
brink  of  the  precipice,  that  we  may  then  throw  ourselves  into 
her  arms  in  despair.14 

The  queen  was  in  truth  resolved  to  conclude  a  peace  if  a 
peace  could  be  made.  If  not,  she  was  determined  to  make 
as  good  a  bargain  with  the  States  as  possible,  in  regard  to 
the  long  outstanding  account  of  her  advances.  Certainly  it 
was  not  unreasonable  that  she  should  wish  to  see  her  ex¬ 
chequer  reimbursed  by  people  who,  as  she  believed,  were 
rolling  in  wealth,  the  fruit  of  a  contraband  commerce  which 
she  denied  to  her  own  subjects,  and  who  were  in  honour 
bound  to  pay  their  debts  to  her  now,  if  they  wished  her  aid 
to  be  continued.  Her  subjects  were  impoverished  and  panting 
for  peace,  and  although,  as  she  remarked,  “  their  sense  of 
duty  restrained  them  from  the  slightest  disobedience  to  her 
absolute  commands,”  still  she  could  not  forgive  herself  for 
thus  exposing  them  to  perpetual  danger.15 

She  preferred  on  the  whole,  however,  that  the  common¬ 
wealth  should  consent  to  its  own  dissolution  ;  for  she  thought 
it  unreasonable  that — offer  this  war  of  thirty  years,  during 
fifteen  of  which  she  had  herself  actively  assisted  them — these 
republican  Calvinists  should  refuse  to  return  to  the  dominion 
of  their  old  tyrant  and  the  pope.  To  Barneveld,  Maurice  of 
Nassau,  and  the  States-Greneral  this  did  not  •seem  a  very 
logical  termination  to  so  much  hard  fighting. 

Accordingly,  when  on  the  26th  of  May  the  two  envoys 
fell  on  their  knees — as  the  custom  was — before  the  26  May 
great  queen,  and  had  been  raised  by  her  to  their  1598. 
feet  again,  they  found  her  Majesty  in  marvellously  ill- 
humour.  Olden- Barneveld  recounted  to  her  the  results  of 
their  mission  to  France,  and  said  that  from  beginning  to  end 
it  had  been  obvious  that  there  could  be  no  other  issue.  The 
king  was  indifferent,  he  had  said,  whether  the  States  preferred 


14  Aerssens  to  Olden-Barneveld,  29 
May,  1598,  in  Deventer,  248-250. 

16  “  Et  nonobstant  que  Sa  Ma1.  le 
peust  dire  avecq  un  singulier  conten- 
tement  que  leur  debvoir  les  retient  de 


la  moindre  desobeissance  contre  ses 
absolutes  commandements,”  &c.  &c. — 
Proposition  by  Yere  and  Gilpin  to  the 
States-General,  25  June,  1598,  in  De¬ 
venter,  ii.  259,  segq. 


488 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXIV. 


peace  or  war,  but  in  making  his  treaty  he  knew  that  he  had 
secured  a  profit  for  himself,  inflicted  damage  on  his  enemy, 
and  done  no  harm  to  his  friends.16 

Her  Majesty  then  interrupted  the  speaker  by  violent 
invectives  against  the  French  king  for  his  treachery.  She 
nad  written  with  her  own  hand,  she  said,  to  tell  him  that 
she  never  had  believed  him  capable  of  doing  what  secretaries 
and  other  servants  had  reported  concerning  him,  but  which 
had  now  proved  true. 

Then  she  became  very  abusive  to  the  Dutch  envoys,  telling 
them  that  they  were  quite  unjustifiable  in  not  following 
Sii  Kober t  Cecils  advice,  and  in  not  engaging  with  him  at 
once  in  peace  negotiations  ;  at  least  so  far  as  to  discover  what 
the  enemy  s  intentions  might  be.  She  added,  pettishly,  that 
if  Piince  Maurice  and  other  functionaries  were  left  in  the 
enj°yment  of  their  offices,  and  if  the  Spaniards  were  sent 
out  of  the  country,  there  seemed  no  reason  why  such  terms 
should  not  be  accejDted. 

Bameveld  lepiied  that  such  accommodation  was  of  course 
impossible,  unless  they  accepted  fi^eir  ancient  sovereign  as 
piince.  Then  came  the  eternal  two  points — obedience  to 
God,  which  meant  submission  to  the  pope,  and  obedience 
to  the  king,  that  was  to  say,  subjection  to  his  despotic 
authority.  Thus  the  Christian  religion  would  be  ruined 
throughout  the  provinces,  and  the  whole  land  be  made  a 
bridge  and  a  ladder  for  Spanish  ambition. 

The  queen  here  broke  forth  into  mighty  oaths,  interrupting 
the  envoy  s  discourse,  protesting  over  and  over  again  by  the 
living  God  that  she  would  not  and  could  not  give  the  States 
any  further  assistance;  that  she  would  leave  them  to  their 
fate  ;  that  her  aid  rendered  in  their  war  had  lasted  much 
longer  than  the  siege  of  Troy  did,  and  swearing  that  she  had 
been  a  fool  to  help  them  and  the  king  of  France  as  she 

and  done,  for  it  was  nothing  but  evil  passions  that  kept  the 
States  so  obstinate.17 


™  Verliaal,  &c.,  before  cited,  234. 

“  Haere  Mat.  interrompeerde  ons 


init  exclamatie  ende  protestatie  repe- 
terende  dickwils,  par  le  Dieu  vivant. 


1598. 


HER  TRIFLING  WITH  THE  ADVOCATE. 


489 


The  envoy  endeavoured  to  soothe  her,  urging  that  as  she 
had  gained  the  reputation  over  the  whole  world  of  adminis¬ 
tering  her  affairs  with  admirable,  yea  with  almost  divine 
wisdom,  she  should  now  make  use  of  that  sagacity  in  the 
present  very  difficult  matter.  She  ought  to  believe  that  it  was 
not  evil  passion,  nor  ambition,  nor  obstinacy  that  prevented 
the  States  from  joining  in  these  negotiations,  but  the  determi¬ 
nation  to  maintain  their  national  existence,  the  Christian 
religion,  and  their  ancient  liberties  and  laws.  They  did  not 
pretend,  he  said,  to  be  wiser  than  great  monarchs  or  their 
counsellors,  but  the  difference  between  their  form  of  govem- 
ment  and  a  monarchy  must  be  their  excuse.  ° 

Monarchs,  when  they  made  treaties,  remained  masters,  and 
could  protect  their  realms  and  their  subjects  from  danger. 
Jffie  States-General  could  not  accept  a  prince  without  placing 
themselves  under  his  absolute  authority,  and  the  Nether- 
landers  would  never  subject  themselves  to  their  deadly  enemy 
whom  they  had  long  ago  solemnly  renounced.18 

Surely  these  remarks  of  the  Advocate  should  have  seemed 

on  irely  unanswerable.  Surely  there  was  no  politician  in 

Europe  so  ignorant  as  not  to  know  that  any  treaty  of  peace' 

between  Philip  and  the  States  meant  their  unconditional 

subjugation  and  the  complete  abolition  of  the  Protestant 

le  lgion.  Least  of  all  did  the  Queen  of  England  require 

information  on  this  great  matter  of  state.  It  was  cruel 

.rifling  therefore,  it  was  inhuman  insolence  on  her  part  to 

suggest  anything  like  a  return  of  the  States  to  the  dominion 
ot  bpam. 

But  her  desire  for  peace  and  her  determination  to  get  back 
icr  money  overpowered  at  that  time  all  other  considerations. 

I  he  States  wished  to  govern  themselves,  she  said  ;  why 
.  en  could  they  not  make  arrangements  against  all  dangers 
and  why  could  they  not  lay  down  conditions  under  which  the 


(lat  sy  niet  en  wilde  noclite  en  konde 
den  Staten  vorder  assisteren,  dat  sy 
kenselven  wilden  verlaten,  dat  sy 
langer  liaer  assistentie  hadde  gedean 
als  het  oorloge  van  Troien  liadde  ge- 
duurt,  seggende  dat  sysot  was  geweest 


doende  sulcke  assistentie  aen  ons  ende 
den  Conmck  van  Vranckryck  dat  liet 
met  den  passien  en  waeren  die  de 
Staten  dus  obstinaet  hidden.” — Ver- 
liaal,  &c.,  236. 

18  Ibid.  237. 


490 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXVI. 


king  would  not  really  be  their  master ;  especially  if  France 
and  England  should  guarantee  them  against  any  infraction  of 
their  rights.  By  the  living  God  !  by  the  living  God !  by  the 
living  God !  she  swore  over  and  over  again  as  her  anger  rose, 
she  would  never  more  have  anything  to  do  with  such  people  ; 
and  she  deeply  regretted  having  thrown  away  her  money 
and  the  lives  of  her  subjects  in  so  stupid  a  manner.19 

Again  the  grave  and  experienced  envoy  of  the  republic 
strove  with  calm  and  earnest  words  to  stay  the  torrent  of  her 
wrath  ;  representing  that  her  money  and  her  pains  had  by 
no  means  been  wasted,  that  the  enemy  had  been  brought  to 
shame  and  his  finances  to  confusion  ;  and  urging  her,  without 
paying  any  heed  to  the  course  pursued  by  the  King  of 
France,  to  allow  the  republic  to  make  levies  of  troops,  at  its 
own  expense,  within  her  kingdom. 

But  her  Majesty  was  obdurate.  “  How  am  I  to  defend 
myself  ?  ”  she  cried ;  “how  are  the  affairs  of  Ireland  to  be  pro¬ 
vided  for  ?  how  am  I  ever  to  get  back  my  money  P  who  is  to 
pay  the  garrisons  of  Brill  and  Flushing  ?  ”  And  with  this 
she  left  the  apartment,  saying  that  her  counsellors  would 
'  confer  with  the  envoys.29 

From  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  interview  the  queen 
was  in  a  very  evil  temper,  and  took  no  pains  to  conceal  her 
dissatisfaction  with  all  the  world. 

Now  there  is  no  doubt  whatever  that  the  subsidies  fur¬ 
nished  by  England  to  the  common  cause  were  very  con¬ 
siderable,  amounting  in  fourteen  years,  according  to  the 
queen’s  calculation,  to  nearly  fourteen  hundred  thousand 
pounds  sterling.  But  in  her  interviews  with  the  republican 
statesmen  she  was  too  prone  to  forget  that  it  was  a  common 
cause,  to  forget  that  the  man  who  had  over  and  over  again 
attempted  her.  assassination,  who  had  repeatedly  attempted 
the  invasion  of  her  realms  with  the  whole  strength  of  the 
most  powerful  military  organization  in  the  world,  whose 
dearest  wish  on  earth  was  still  to  accomplish  her  dethrone¬ 
ment  and  murder,  to  extirpate  from  England  the  religion 


19  Verliaal,  &c.,  237. 


29  Ibid. 


1598. 


ENGLISH  STATESMEN  FAVOURABLE  TO  PEACE.  49 1 


professed  by  the  majority  of  living  Englishmen,  and  to  place 
upon  her  vacant  throne  a  Spanish,  German,  or  Italian  prince, 
was  as  much  her  enemy  as  he  was  the  foe  of  his  ancient 
subjects  in  the  Netherlands.  At  that  very  epoch  Philip  was 
occupied  in  reminding  the  pope  that .  the  two  had  always 
agreed  as  to  the  justice  of  the  claims  of  the  Infanta  Isabella 
to  the  English  crown,  and  calling  on  his  Holiness  to  sustain 
those  pretensions,  now  that  she  had  been  obliged,  in  conse¬ 
quence  of  the  treaty  with  the  Prince  of  Bearne,  to  renounce 
her  right  to  reign  over  France.21 

Certainly  it  was  fair  enough  for  the  queen  and  her  coun¬ 
sellors  to  stand  out  for  an  equitable  arrangement  of  the 
debt ;  but  there  was  much  to  dispute  in  the  figures.  When 
was  ever  an  account  of  fifteen  years'  standing  adjusted, 
whether  between  nations  or  individuals,  without  much 
wrangling  ?  Meantime  her  Majesty  held  excellent  security 
in  two  thriving  and  most  important  Netherland  cities.  But 
had  the  States  consented  to  re-establish  the  Spanish  authority 
over  the  whole  of  their  little  Protestant  republic,  was  there 
an  English  child  so  ignorant  of  arithmetic  or  of  history  as 
not  to  see  how  vast  would  be  the  peril,  and  how  incalculable 
the  expense,  thus  caused  to  England  ? 

Yet  besides  the  Cecils  and  the  lord  high  admiral,  other  less 
influential  counsellors  of  the  crown — reven  the  upright  and 
accomplished  Buckhurst,  who  had  so  often  proved  his  friend¬ 
ship  for  the  States — were  in  favour  of  negotiation.  There 
were  many  conferences  with  meagre  results.  The  English¬ 
men  urged  that  the  time  had  come  for  the  States  to  repay 
the  queen's  advances,  to  relieve  her  from  future  subsidies, 
to  assume  the  payment  of  the  garrisons  in  the  cautionary 


21  “  Y  aqui  sera  bien  que  acorcleis  a 
Su  Santd.  asimismo  lo  que  mas  de  una 
vez  os  ha  dicho  de  quanto  deseaba  en- 
caminar  la  sucesion  de  la  Infanta  mi 
bija  a  Ynglaterra  quedando  reyno  por 
si  y  allanando  para  ello  los  impedi- 
mentos  de  Francia  y  aun  procurando 
su  ayuda  en  consideracion  de  remitir 
les  desta  parte  los  grandes  dereclios 
de  la  Infanta  y  tambien  los  mios  a  la 


recompensa  de  los  excesivos  gastos 
liechos  en  su  beneficio  y  vereis  si  por 
aqui  podreis  inclinar  al  papa  a  que 
trata  de  desunir  a  franceses  de  ingleses, 
acordando  a  los  franceses  que  los  in¬ 
gleses  son  sus  antiquos  enemiges,”  &c. 
&c. — Philip  to  Duke  of  Sesa,  liis  envoy 
at  Rome,  16  March,  1597.  (Arch,  de 
Simancas  MS.) 


492 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXIV. 


towns,  and  to  furnish  a  force  in  defence  of  England  when 
attacked.  Such  was  the  condition  of  the  kingdom,  they  said 
— being,  as  it  was,  entirely  without  fortified  cities — that  a 
single  battle  would  imperil  the  whole  realm,  so  that  it  was 
necessary  to  keep  the  enemy  out  of  it  altogether.22 

These  arguments  were  not  unreasonable,  hut  the  inference 

was  surely  illogical.  The  special  envoys  from  the  republic 

had  not  been  instructed  to  treat  about  the  debt.  This  had 

♦ 

been  the  subject  of  perpetual  negotiation.  It  was  discussed 
almost  every  day  by  the  queen’s  commissioners  at  the  Hague 
and  by  the  States’  resident  minister  at  London.  Olden- 
Barneveld  and  the  admiral  had  been  sent  forth  by  the  States 
in  what  in  those  days  was  considered  great  haste  to  prevent 
a  conclusion  of  a  treaty  between  their  two  allies  and  the 
common  enemy.  They  had  been  too  late  in  France,  and 
now,  on  arriving  in  England,  they  found  that  government 
steadily  drifting  towards  what  seemed  the  hopeless  shipwreck 
of  a  general  peace. 

What  must  have  been  the  grief  of  Olden-Barneveld  when 
he  heard  from  the  lips  of  the  enlightened  Buckhurst  that  the 
treaty  of  1585  had  been  arranged  to  expire — according  to  the 
original  limitation — with  a  peace,  and  that  as  the  States 
could  now  make  peace  and  did  not  choose  to  do  so,  her 
Majesty  must  be  considered  as  relieved  from  her  contract  of 
alliance,  and  as  justified  in  demanding  repayment  of  her 
advances  ! 23 

To  this  perfidious  suggestion  what  could  the  States’  envoy 
reply  but  that  as  a  peace  such  as  the  treaty  of  1585  presup¬ 
posed — to  wit,  with  security  for  the  Protestant  religion  and 
for  the  laws  and  liberties  of  the  provinces — was  impossible, 
should  the  States  now  treat  writh  the  king  or  the  cardinal  ? 

The  envoys  had  but  one  more  interview  with  the  queen, 
in  which  she  was  more  benignant  in  manner  but  quite  as 
peremptory  in  her  demands.  Let  the  States  either  thoroughly 
satisfy  her  as  to  past  claims  and  present  necessities,  or  let 
them  be  prepared  for  her  immediate  negotiation  with  the 


22  Verliaal,  &c.,  239. 


23  Ibid. 


.1597.  THE  ENVOYS’  LAST  AUDIENCE  OF  THE  QUEEN.  493 

enemy.  Should  she  decide  to  treat,  she  would  not  be  un¬ 
mindful  of  their  interests,  she  said,  nor  deliver  them  over 
into  the  enemy’s  hands.  She  repeated,  however,  the  absurd 
opinion  that  there  were  means  enough  of  making  Philip 
nominal  sovereign  of  all  the  Netherlands,  without  allowing 
him  to  exercise  any  authority  over  them.  As  if  the  most 
Catholic  and  most  absolute  monarch  that  ever  breathed  could 
be  tied  down  by  the  cobwebs  of  constitutional  or  treaty 
stipulations ;  as  if  the  previous  forty  years  could  be  effaced 
from  the  record  of  history. 

She  asked,  too,  in  case  the  rumours  of  the  intended 

transfer  of  the  Netherlands  to  the  cardinal  or  the  Infanta 

should  prove  true,  which  she  doubted,  whether  this  arran-e- 

ment  would  make  any  difference  in  the  sentiments  of  the 
States. 

Barneveld  replied  that  the  transfer  was  still  uncertain,  but 
that  they  had  no  more  confidence  in  the  cardinal  or  the 
Infanta  than  in  the  King  of  Spain  himself. 

On  taking  leave  of  the  queen  the  envoys  waited  upon  Lord 
Burghley,  whom  they  found  sitting  in  an  arpi-chair  in  his 
bedchamber,  suffering  from  the  gout  and  with  a  very  fierce 
countenance.24  He  made  no  secret  of  his  opinions  in  favour 
of  negotiation,  said  that  the  contracts  made  by  monarchs 
should  always  be  interpreted  reasonably,  and  pronounced  a 
warm  eulogy  on  the  course  pursued  by  the  King  of  France 
It  was  his  Majesty’s  duty,  he  said,  to  seize  the  best  oppor¬ 
tunity  for  restoring  repose  to  his  subjects  and  his  realms,  and 
it  was  the  duty  of  other  sovereigns  to  do  the  same. 

The  envoys  replied  that  they  were  not  disposed  at  that 
moment  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  the  king’s  actions.  They 
would  content  themselves  with  remarking  that  in  their 
opinion  even  kings  and  princes  were  bound  by  their  con¬ 
tracts,  oaths,  and  pledges  before  God  and  man  ;  and  with  this 

wholesome  sentiment  they  took  leave  of  the  lord  hiVh 
treasurer.25  ° 


24  “  Toonende  een  tier  gelaat  Ver- 
liaal,  &c..  243. 


x5  “  W y  seyden  dat  ons  niet  toe  en 
stonde  van  de  -actio  van  de  Coninck 


494 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXIV. 


They  left  London  immediately,  on  the  last  day  of  May, 
31  May,  without  passports  or  despatches  of  recal,  and  em- 
159S-  harked  at  Gravesend  in  the  midst  of  a  gale  of  wind. 

Lord  Essex,  the  sincere  friend  of  the  republic,  was  both 
surprised  and  disturbed  at  their  sudden  departure,  and  sent 
a  special  courier  after  them  to  express  his  regrets  at  the 
unsatisfactory  termination  to  their  mission.  “  My  mistress 
knows  very  well,”  said  he,  “that  she  is  an  absolute  princess, 
and  that,  when  her  ministers  have  done  their  extreme  duty, 
she  wills ‘what  she  wills."  26 


The  negotiations  between  England  and  Spain  were  de¬ 
ferred,  however,  for  a  brief  space,  and  a  special  message  was 
despatched  to- the  Hague  as  to  the  arrangement  of  the  debt.- 
“  Peace  at  once  with  Philip,"  said  the  queen,  “  or  else  full' 
satisfaction  of  my  demands." 

Now  it  was  close  dealing  between  such  very  thrifty  and 
acute  bargainers  as  the  queen  and  the  Netlierland  republic. 

Two  years  before,  the  States  had  offered  to  pay  twenty 
thousand  pounds  a  year  on  her  Majesty's  birthday  so  long 
as  the  war  should  last,  and  after  a  peace,  eighty  thousand 
pounds  annually  for  four  years.27  The  queen,  on  her  part, 
fixed  the  sum  total  of  the  debt  at  nearly  a  million  and  a  half 
sterling,  and  required  instant  payment  of  at  least  one  hun¬ 
dred  thousand  pounds  on  account,  besides  provision  for  a 
considerable  annual  refunding,  assumption  by  the  States  of 
the  whole  cost  of  the  garrisons  in  the  cautionary  towns,  and 
assurance  of  assistance  in  case  of  an  attack  upon  England.28 
Thus  there  was  a  whole  ocean  between  the  disputants. 

Yere  and  Gilpin  were  protocolling  and  marshalling  ac¬ 
counts  at  the  Hague,  and  conducting  themselves  with  much 
arrogance  and  bitterness,  while,  meantime,  Barneveld  had 


te  oordelen  maer  dat  wy  meinden  dat 
oock  Coningen  ende  Prinsen  aen  baer 
contracten,  beloften  ende  eeden  voor 
Godt  ende  de  werelt  verbonden  waren  ; 
daermede  *vvy  van  den  voosclir. 
Heere  Groote  Tresorier  syn  geschey- 
den.” — -Verhaal,  &c.,  244. 

25  Essex  to  Nassau  and  Olden-Bar  - 


neveld,  22  May,  1598.  (0.  S.) 

“  Et  que  ma  maitresse  scait  bien 
qu’elle  est  princesse  absolue,  et  que 
quant  ses  ministres  ont  fait  leur  es- 
treme  devoyer  elle  veult  ce  qu’elle 
veult.” — Deventer,  iii.  247.  • 

27  Agreement  in  Bor,  IV.  245. 

28  Meteren,  406.  Deventer,  ii.  258 


1598.  RETURN  OF  THE  LEGATION  TO  ENGLAND.  495 

hardly  had  time  to  set  his  foot  on  his  native  shores  before  he 
was  sent  hack  again  to  England  at  the  head  of  another 
solemn  legation.  One  more  effort  was  to  he  made  to 

arrange  this  financial  problem  and  to  defeat  the  English 
peace  party. 

The  offer  of  the  year  1596  just  alluded  to  was  renewed  and 
instantly  injected.  Natuially  enough,  the  Dutch  envoys  were 
disposed,  in  the  exhausting  warfare  which  was  so  steadily 
draining  their  finances,  to  pay  down  as  little  as  possible  on 

the  nail,,  while  providing  for  what  they  considered  a  liberal 
annual  sinking  fund. 

The  English,  on  the  contrary,  were  for  a  good  round  sum 
in  actual  cash,  and  held  the  threatened  negotiation  with 
•  S*ain  over  the  heads  of  the  unfortunate  envoys  like  a  whip. 

So  the  queen'^  counsellors  and  the  republican  envoys  tra¬ 
velled  again  and  again  over  the  well-worn  path. 

On  the  29th  June,  Buckhurst  took  Olden- Barneveld  39  June> 
into  his  cabinet,  and  opened  his  heart  to  him,  not  as  a  servant 
of  her  Majesty,  he  said,  but  as  a. private  Englishman.29  He 
was  entirely  for  peace.  Now  that  peace  was  offered  to  her 
Majesty,  a  continuance  _  of  the  war  was  unrighteous,  and  the 
Lord  God's  blessing  could  not  be  upon  it.  Without  God's 
blessing  no  resistance  could  be  made  by  the  queen  nor  by  the 
States  to  the  enemy,  who  was  ten  times  more  powerful  than 
her  Majesty  in  kingdoms,  provinces,  number  of  subjects,  and 
money.  He  had  the  pope,  the  emperor,  the  Dukes  of  Savoy 
and  Lorraine,  and  the  republic  of  Genoa,  for  his  allies.  He 
feared  that  the  war  might  come  upon  England,  and  that  they 
might  be  fated  on  one  single  day  to  win  or  lose  all.  The 
queen  possessed  no  mines,  and  was  obliged  to  carry  on  the 
war  by  taxing  her  people.  The  king  had  ever-flowing  foun¬ 
tains  in  his  mines  ;  the  queen  nothing  but  a  stagnant  pool, 
which,  when  all  the  water  was  pumped  out,  must  in  the 
end  be  dry.  He  concluded,  therefore,  that  as  her  Majesty 
had  no  allies  but  the  Netherlands,  peace  was  best  for  England, 


"  Conference  between  Olden-Barneveld  and  Buckhurst,  in  Deventer  ii. 

<*04 — iOuV.  ’ 


496 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXIV 


and  advisable  for  the  provinces.  Arrangements  could  easily 
be  made  to  limit  the  absolute  authority  of  Spain.30 

This  highly  figurative  view  of  the  subject — more  becoming  to 
the  author  of  Ferrex  and  Porrex  than  to  so  experienced  a  states¬ 
man  as  Sackville  had  become  since  his  dramatic  days — did  not 
much  impress  Barneveld.  He  answered  that,  although  the  King 
of  Spain  was  unquestionably  very  powerful,  the  Lord  God  was 
still  stronger  ;  that  England  and  the  Netherlands  together 
could  maintain  the  empire  of  the  seas,  which  was  of  the 
utmost  importance,  especially  for  England  ;  but  that  if  the 
republic  were  to  make  her  submission  to  Spain,  and  become 
incorporate  with  that  power,  the  control  of  the  seas  was  lost 
for  ever  to  England. 

The  Advocate  added  the  unanswerable  argument  that  >to 
admit  Philip  as  sovereign,  and  then  to  attempt  a  limitation 
of  his  despotism,  was  a  foolish  dream. 

Buckhurst  repeated  that  the  republic  was  the  only  ally  of 
England,  that  there  was  no  confidence  to  be  placed  by  her 
in  any  other  power,  and  that  for  himself,  he  was,  as  always, 
very  much  the  friend  of  the  States. 

Olden-Barneveld  might  well  have  prayed,  however,  to  be 
delivered  from  such  friends.  To  thrust  one's  head  into  the 
lion's  mouth,  while  one's  friends  urge  moderation  on  the  noble 
animal,  can  never  be  considered  a  cheerful  or  prudent  pro¬ 
ceeding. 

At  last,  after  all  offers  had  been  rejected  which  the  envoys 
had  ventured  to  make,  Elizabeth  sent  for  Olden-Barneveld  and 
Oar  on  and  demanded  their  ultimatum  within  twenty-four 
hours.  Should  it  prove  unsatisfactory,  she  would  at  once 
make  peace  with  Spain.32 

On  the  1st  August  the  envoys  accordingly  proposed  to 
Cecil  and  the  other  ministers  to  pay  thirty  thousand  pounds  a 
year,  instead  of  twenty  thousand,  so  long  as  the  war  should 
last,  but  they  claimed  the  right  of  redeeming  the  cautionary 
towns  at  one  hundred  thousand  pounds  each.  This  seemed 


30  Conference,  &c.,  ubi  sup.  31  Ibid. 

32  Minutes  of  Olden-Barneveld.  Deventer,  ii  267.  268. 


lo9S.  FINAL  AGREEMENT  WITH  ELIZABETH.  497 

admissible,  and  Cecil  and  his  colleagues  pronounced  the 

affair  arranged.  But  they  had  reckoned  without  the.  queen 
after  all. 

Elizabeth  sent  for  Caron  as  soon  as  she  heard  of  the 
agreement,  flew  into  a  great  rage,  refused  the  terms,  swore 
.  that  she  would  instantly  make  peace  with  Spain,  and  thun- 
dered  loudly  against  her  ministers. 

“  They  were  great  beasts,”  she  said,  “  if  they  had  stated 
that  she  would  not  treat  with  the  enemy.  She  had  merely 
intended  to  defer  the  negotiations.”33 

00  ^ie  wh°le  business  was  to  be  done  over  again.  At  last 
the  sum  claimed  by  the  queen,  fourteen  hundred  thousand 
pounds,  was  reduced  by  agreement  to  eight  hundred  thousand, 
and  one-half  of  this  the  envoys  undertook  on  the  part  of 
the  States  to  refund  in  annual  payments  of  thirty  thousand 
pounds,  while  the  remaining  four  hundred  thousand  should 
be  piovided  for  by  some  subsequent  arrangement.  Alf*at- 
tempts,  however,  to  obtain  a  promise  from  the  queen  to 
restore  the  cautionary  towns  to  the  republic  in  case  of  a  peace 
between  Spain  and  England  remained  futile.34 

That  was  to  be  a  bone  of  contention  for  many  years. 

.  ^  was  ^ur^ier  agreed  by  the  treaty,  which  was  definitely 
signed  on  the  16th  August,  that,  in  case  England  lfl  A 
were  invaded  by  the  common  enemy,  the  States  1598-  & 
should  send  to  the  queen's  assistance  at  least  thirty  ships 
of  war,  besides  five  thousand  infantry  and  five  squadrons  of 
horse.35 


23  “  S y  w aren  groote  beesten,  indien 
sy  ons  geseit  hadden  dat  sy  niet  met 
den  viand  tracteren  soude ;  sy  wilde  de 
bandelinge  slechts  differeren.”-— Ver- 


baal  van  Duivenoorde  Olden-Barnevelt 
enz.,”  cited  by  Deventer,  ii.  268. 

34  Ibid. 

35  Treaty,  apud  Bor,  IV.  476-478. 


vol.  hi. — 2  K 


498 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS 


Chap.  XXXV. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

Negotiations  between  France  and  Spain  —  Conclusion  of  the  treaty  of  peace  — 
Purchase  of  the  allegiance  of  the  French  nobles  —  Transfer  of  the  Nether¬ 
lands  to  Albert  and  Isabella  —  Marriage  of  the  Infante  and  the  Infanta  — 
Illness  of  Philip  II.  —  Horrible  nature  of  his  malady  —  His  last  hours  and 
death  — Review  of  his  reign  — Extent  of  the  Spanish  dominions  —  Causes 
of  the  greatness  of  Spain,  and  of  its  downfall  —  Philip’s  wars  and  their 
expenses  —  The  Crown  revenues  of  Spain  —  Character  of  the  people  — 
Their  inordinate  self-esteem  —  Consequent  deficiency  of  labour  —  Ecclesi¬ 
astical  Government  —  Revenues  of  the  Church  —  Characteristics  of  the 
Spanish  clergy  —  Foreign  commerce  of  Spain  —  Governmental  system  of 
Philip  II.  — Founded  on  the  popular  ignorance  and  superstition  —  Ex¬ 
tinction  of  liberty  in  Spain  — The  Holy  Inquisition  —  The  work  and 

character  of  Philip. 

♦ 

While  tlie  utterly  barren  conferences  bad  been  going  on  at 
Anders  and  Nantes  between  Henry  IV.  and  tbe  republican 
envoys,  tbe  negotiations  bad  been  proceeding  at  Vervkis. 

President  Ricbardot  on  bebalf  of  Spain,  and  Secretary  of 
State  Villeroy  as  commissioner  of  Henry,  were  tbe  chief 
negotiators.1 

Two  old  acquaintances,  two  ancient  Leaguers,  two  bitter 
baters  of  Protestants  and  rebels,  two  thorough  adepts  in  diplo¬ 
matic  chicane,  they  went  into  this  contest  like  gladiators 
who  thoroughly  understood  and  respected  each  other's  skill. 

Ricbardot  was  recognized  by  all  as  the  sharpest  and  most 
unscrupulous  politician  in  the  obedient  Netherlands.  Villeroy 
had  conducted  every  intrigue  of  France  during  a  whole  gene¬ 
ration  of  mankind.  They  scarcely  did  more  than  measure 
swords  and  test  each  other’s  objects,  before  arriving  at  a  con¬ 
viction  as  to  the  inevitable  result  of  the  encounter. 

It  was  obvious  at  once  to  Villeroy  that  Philip  was  deter¬ 
mined  to  make  peace  with  France  in  order  that  the  triple 
alliance  might  be  broken  up.  It  was  also  known  to  the 

1  Relazion  del  Presidente  Ricbardot,  April,  1598.  (Arch  dq  Simancas  MS.) 


1598. 


FRANCO-SPANISII  NEGOTIATIONS. 


499 


French,  diplomatist  that  the  Spanish  king  was  ready  for 
almost  every  concession  to  Henry,  in  order  that  this  object 
might  be  accomplished. 

All  that  Richardot  hoped  to  save  out  of  the  various  con¬ 
quests  made  by  Spain  over  France  was  Calais. 

But  Villeroy  told  him  that  it  was  useless  to  say  a  word  on 
that  subject.  His  king  insisted  on  the  restoration  of  the 
place.  Otherwise  he  would  make  no  peace.  It  was  enough, 
he  said,  that  his  Majesty  said  nothing  about  Navarre. 

Richardot  urged  that  at  the  time  when  the  English  had  con¬ 
quered  Calais  it  had  belonged  to  Artois,  not  to  France.  It 
was  no  more  than  equitable,  then,  that  it  should  be  retained 
by  its  original  proprietor. 

The  general  of  the  Franciscans,  who  acted  as  a  kind  of 
umpire  in  the  transactions,  then  took  each  negotiator  sepa¬ 
rately  aside  and  whispered  in  his  ear.2 

Villeroy  shook  his  head,  and  said  he  had  given  his  ulti¬ 
matum.  Richardot  acknowledged  that  he  had  something  in 

reserve,  upon  which  the  monk  said  that  it  was  time  to  make 
it  known. 

Accordingly — the  two  being  all  ears — Richardot  observed 
that  what  he  was  about  to  state  he  said  with  fear  and  trem¬ 
bling.  He  knew  not  what  the  King  of  Spain  would  think  of 
his  proposition,  but  he  would,  nevertheless,  utter  the  sug¬ 
gestion  that  Calais  should  be  handed  over  to  the  pope.3 

His  Holiness  would  keep  the  city  in  pledge  until  the  war 
with  the  rebels  was  over,  and  then  there  would  be  leisure 
enough  to  make  definite  arrangements  on  the  subject. 

Now  Villetoy  was  too  experienced  a  practitioner  to  be 
imposed  upon  by  this  ingenious  artifice.  Moreover,  he  hap¬ 
pened  to  have  an  intercepted  letter  in  his  possession  in  which 
Philip  told  the  cardinal  that  Calais  was  to  be  given  up  if  the 
French  made  its  restitution  a  sine  qua  non.  So  Villeroy  did 
make  it  a  sine  qua  non ,  and  the  conferences  soon  after  ter¬ 
minated  in  an  agreement  on  the  part  of  Spain  to  surrender  all 
its  conquests  in  France.4  * 


2  Relazion,  &c.  (Arcli.  de  Sim.  MS.) 


3  Ibid. 


4  Ibid. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXV. 


500 


Certainly  no  more  profitable  peace  than  this  could  have 
been  made  by  the  French  king  under  such  circumstances, 
and  Philip  at  the  last  moment  had  consented  to  pay  a  heavy 
price  for  bringing  discord  between  the  three  friends.  The 
treaty  was  signed  at  Vervins  on  the  2nd  May,  and  contained 
thirty-five  articles.  Its  basis  was  that  of  the  treaty  of  Cateau 
Cambresis  of  1559.  Restitution  of  all  places  conquered  by 
either  party  within  the  dominions  of  the  other  since  the 
day  of  that  treaty  was  stipulated.  Henry  recovered  Calais, 
Ardres,  Dourlens,  Blavet,  and  many  other  places,  and  gave 
up  the  country  of  Charolois.  Prisoners  were  to  be  surren¬ 
dered  on  both  sides  without  ransom,  and  such  of  those  cap¬ 
tives  of  war  as  had  been,  enslaved  at  the  galleys  should  be 
set  free. 

The  pope,  the  emperor,  all  his  cousins,  and  those  electors, 
states,  and  cities  under  their  obedience  or  control,  the  Duke  of 
Savoy,  the  King  of  Poland  and  Sweden,  the  Kings  of  Den¬ 
mark  and  Scotland,  the  Dukes  of  Lorraine  and  Tuscany, 
the  Doge  of  Venice,  the  republic  of  Genoa,  and  many  lesser 
states  and  potentates,  were  included  in  the  treaty.  The 
famous  Edict  of  Nantes  in  favour  of  the  Protestant  subjects  of 
the  French  king  was  drawn  up  and  signed  in  the  city  of 
which  it  bears  the  name  at  about  the  same  time  with  these 
negotiations.  Its  publication  was,  however,  deferred  until 
after  the  departure  of  the  legate  from  France  in  the  following 
year.5 

The  treaty  of  Cateau  Cambresis  had  been  pronounced  the 
most  disgraceful  and  disastrous  one  that  had  ever  been  ratified 
by  a  French  monarch ;  and  surely  Henry  had  now  wiped 
away  that  disgrace  and  repaired  that  disaster.  It  was  natural 
enough  that  he  should  congratulate  himself  on  the  rewards 
which  he  had  gathered  by  deserting  his  allies. 

He  had  now  sufficient  occupation  for  a  time  in  devising 
ways  and  means,  with  the  aid  of  the  indefatigable  Bethune, 
to  pay  the  prodigious  sums  with  which  he  had  purchased 
the  allegiance  of  the  great  nfrbles  and  lesser  gentlemen  of 
5  Treaty,  apud  Bor,  IV.  445-450.  De  Tliou,  xiii.  208,  seqq.,  1.  120. 


1598.  TRANSFER  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS  TO  ISABELLA.  £()1 

France.  Thirty- two  millions  of  livres  were  not  sufficient  to 
satisfy  the  claims  of  these  patriots,  most  of  "whom  had  been 
di  awing  enormous  pensions  from  the  King  of  Spain  up  to  the 
very  moment,  or  beyond  it,  when  they  consented  to  acknow¬ 
ledge  the  sovereign  of  their  own  country.  Scarcely  a  great 

name  in  the  golden  book  of  France  but  was  recorded  amono' 
these  bills  of  sale. 

Mayenne,  Lorraine,  Guise,  Nemours,  Mercceur,  Mont- 
pensier,  Joyeuse,  Epernon,  Brissac,  D’Arlincourt,  Balagny, 
Rochefort,  Villeroy,  Villars,  Montespan,  Leviston,  Beauvillars, 
and  countless  others,  figured  in  the  great  financier’s  terrible 
account-book,  from  Mayenne,  set  down  at  the  cool  amount 
of  three  and  a  half  millions,  to  Beauvoir  or  Beauvillars  at 
the  more  modest  price  of  a  hundred  and  sixty  thousand 
livres.  I  should  appal  my  readers,”  said  De  Bethune,  “if 
I  should  show  to  them  that  this  sum  makes  but  a  very  small 
part  of  the  amounts  demanded  from  the  royal  treasury,  either 
by  Frenchmen  ,or  by  strangers,  as  pay  and  pension,  and  yet 
the  total  was  thirty-two  millions/’6 

And  now  the  most  Catholic  king,  having  brought  himself 
at  last  to  exchange  the  grasp  of  friendship  with  the  great 
ex-heretic,  and  to  recognize  the  Prince  of  Bcarne  as  the  legi¬ 
timate  successor  of  St.  Louis,  to  prevent  which  consumma¬ 
tion  he  had  squandered  so  many  thousands  of  lives,  so  many 
millions  of  treasure,  and  brought  ruin  to  so  many  prosperous 
countries,  prepared  himself  for  another  step  which  he  had 
ten g  hesitated  to  take. 

He  resolved  to  transfer  the  Netherlands  to  his  daughter 
Isabella  and  to  the  Cardinal  Archduke  Albert,  who,  as  the 
king  had  now  decided,  was  to  espouse  the  Infanta. 

The  deed  of  cession  was  signed  at  Madrid  on  the  6th  May, 
1598.  It  was  accompanied  by  a  letter  of  the  same  g  May. 

date  from  the  Prince  Philip,  heir  apparent  to  the 
crown. 

On  the  30th  May  the  Infanta  executed  a  procuration  by 
which  she  gave  absolute  authority  to  her  future  husband 

6  Sully.  Memoires,  lib.  x.  560. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXV. 


502 


to  rule  over  the  provinces  of  the  Netherlands,  Burgundy, 
and  Charolois,  and  to  receive  the  oaths  of  the  estates  and  of 
public  functionaries.7 

It  was  all  very  systematically  done.  No  transfer  of  real 
estate,  no  donatio  inter  vivos  of  mansions  and  messuages, 
parks  and  farms,  herds  and  flocks,  could  have  been  effected  in 
a  more  business-like  manner  than  the  gift  thus  made  by  the 
most  prudent  king  to  his  beloved  daughter. 

The  quit-claim  of  the  brother  was  perfectly  regular. 

So  also  was  the  power  of  attorney,  by  which  the  Infanta 
authorised  the  middle-aged  ecclesiastic  whom  she  was  about 
to  espouse  to  take  possession  in  her  name  of  the  very  desir¬ 
able  property  which  she  had  thus  acquired. 

It  certainly  never  occurred,  either  to  the  giver  or  the 
receivers,  that  the  few  millions  of  Netherlanders,  male  and 
female,  inhabiting  these  provinces  in  the  North  Sea,  were 
entitled  to  any  voice  or  opinion  as  to  the  transfer  of  them¬ 
selves  and  their  native  land  to  a  young  lady  living  in  a 
remote  country.  For  such  was  the  blasphemous  system  of 
Europe  at  that  day.  Property  had  rights.  Kings,  from  whom 
all  property  emanated,  were  enfeoffed  directly  from  the 
Almighty ;  they  bestowed  certain  privileges  on  their  vassals, 
but  man  had  no  rights  at  all.  He  was  property,  like  the  ox 
or  the  ass,  like  the  glebe  which  he  watered  with  the  sweat  of 
his  brow. 

The  obedient  Netherlands  acquiesced  obediently  in  these 
new  arrangements.  They  wondered  only  that  the  king 
should  be  willing  thus  to  take  from  his  crown  its  choicest 
jewels — for  it  is  often  the  vanity  of  colonies  and  dependencies 
to  consider  themselves  gems. 


7  See  all  tlie  deeds  and  documents 
in  Bor,  IV.  461-466.  Compare  Herrera, 
iii.  766-770. 

Very  elaborate  provisions  were  made 
in  regard  to  the  children  and  grand¬ 
children  to  spring  from  this  marriage, 
but  it  was  generally  understood  at  the 
time  that  no  issue  was  to  be  expected. 
The  incapacity  of  the  cardinal  seems 
to  have  been  revealed  by  an  indiscre¬ 
tion  of  the  General  of  Franciscans — 


diplomatist  and  father  confessor — and 
was  supported  by  much  collateral  evi¬ 
dence.  Hence  all  these  careful  stipu¬ 
lations  Avere  a  solemn  jest,  like  much 
of  the  diplomatic  work  of  this  reign. 
See  letter  of  F.  d’Aerssens  to  States- 
General,  27  May,  1599,  in  Lettres  et 
Negotiations  de  Buzanval  et  D’Aers¬ 
sens,  par  G.  G.  Vrede,  Leide,  1846,  p. 
190.  But  compare  Soranzo,  Relazione, 
before  cited,  p.  169. 


1598. 


ILLNESS  OF  TEE  KING  OF  SPAIN. 


503 


The  republican  Netherlander  only  laughed  at  these 
arrangements,  and  treated  the  invitation  to  transfer  them¬ 
selves  to  the  new  sovereigns  of  the  provinces  with  silent 
contempt.8  * 

The  cardinal-archduke  left  Brussels  in  September,  having 
accomplished  the  work  committed  to  him  by  the  u  Sept, 
power  of  attorney,  and  having  left  Cardinal  Andrew-  1598- 
of  Austria,  bishop  of  Constantia,  son  of  the  Archduke 
Ferdinand,  to  administer  affairs  during  his  absence.  Francis 
de  Mendoza,  Admiral  of  Arragon,  was  entrusted  with  the 
supreme  military  command  for  the  same  interval. 

The  double  marriage  of  the  Infante  of  Spain  with  the 
Archduchess  Margaret  of  Austria,  and  of  the  unfrocked 
Cardinal  Albert  of  Austria  with  the  Infanta  Clara  Eugenia 
Isabella,  was  celebrated  by  proxy,  with  immense  pomp,  at 
Ferrara,  the  pope  himself  officiating  with  the  triple  crown 
upon  his  head.9 

Meantime,  Philip  II.,  who  had  been  of  delicate  consti¬ 
tution  all  his  life,  and  who  had  of  late  years  been  a  con¬ 
firmed  valetudinarian,  had  been  rapidly  failing  ever  since  the 
transfer  of  the  Netherlands  in  May.  Longing  to  be  once 
more  i ft  his  favourite  retirement  of  the  Escorial,  he  undertook 
the  journey  towards  the  beginning  of  June,  and  was  carried 
thither  from  Madrid  in  a  litter  borne  by  servants,  accom- 
plishing  the  journey  of  seven  leagues  in  six  days. 

When  he  reached  the  palace  cloister,  he  was  unable  to 
stand.  The  gout,  his  life-long  companion,  had  of  late  so 
tortured  him  in  the  hands  and  feet  that  the  mere  touch  of  a 
linen  sheet  was  painful  to  him.  By  the  middle  of  July 
a  low  fever  had  attacked  him,  which  rapidly  reduced 
his  strength.  Moreover,  a  new  and  terrible  symptom  of  the 
utter  disintegration  of  his  physical  constitution  had  presented 
itself.  Imposthumes,  from  which  he  had  suffered  on  the 
breast  and  at  the  joints,  had  been  opened  after  the  usual 
ripening  applications,  and  the  result  was  not  the  hoped  relief, 
but  swarms  of  vermin,  innumerable  in  quantities,  and  im- 

8  Bor,  IV.  467. 


9  Ibid.  470-472. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXV. 


504 


possible  to  extirpate,  which  were  thus .  generated  and  repro¬ 
duced  in  the  monarch's  blood  and  flesh. 

The  details  of  the  fearful  disorder  may  have  attraction  for 
the  pathologist,  but  have  no  especial  interest  for  the  general 
reader.  Let  it  suffice,  that  no  torture  ever  invented  by' 
Torquemada  or  Peter  Titelman  to  serve  the  vengeance  of 
Philip  and  his  ancestors  or  the  pope  against  the  heretics 
of  Italy  or  Flanders,  could  exceed  in  acuteness  the  agonies 
which  the  most  Catholic  king  was  now  called  upon  to  endure. 
And  not  one  of  the  long  line  of  martyrs,  who  by  decree 
of  Charles  or  Philip  had  been  strangled,  beheaded,  burned,  or 
buried  alive,  ever  faced  a  death  of  lingering  torments  with 
more  perfect  fortitude,  or  was  sustained  by  more  ecstatic 
visions  of  heavenly  mercy,  than  was  now  the  case  with  the 
great  monarch  of  Spain. 

That  the  grave-worms  should  do  their  office  before  soul 
and  body  were  parted,  was  a  torment  such  as  the  imagination 
of  Dante  might  have  invented  for  the  lowest  depths  of  his 
ce  Inferno." 10 

Orr  the  22nd  July,  the  king  asked  Dr.  Mercado  if  his 
sickness  was  likely  to  have  a  fatal  termination.  The  physician, 
not  having  the  courage  at  once  to  give  the  only  possible 
reply,  found  means  to  evade  the  question.  On  the  1st  August 
his  Majesty's  confessor,  father  Diego  de  Yepes,  after  consulta¬ 
tion  with  Mercado,  announced  to  Philip  that  the  only  issue 
to  his  malady  was  death.  Already  he  had  been  lying  for  ten 
days  .on  his  back,  a  mass  of  sores  and  corruption,  scarcely 
able  to  move,  and  requiring  four  men  to  turn  him  in  his  bed. 

He  expressed  the  greatest  satisfaction  at  the  sincerity 
which  had  now  been  used,  and  in  the  gentlest  and  most  benig¬ 
nant  manner  signified  his  thanks  to  them  for  thus  removing 
all  doubts  from  his  mind,  and  for  giving  him  information 
which  it  was  of  so  much  importance  for  his  eternal  welfare 
to  possess. 


10  A  great  English  poet  has  indeed  expressed  the  horrible  thought : — 
“  It  is  as  if  the’ dead  could  feel 
The  icy  worm  about  them  steal.” — Byeon. 


1598. 


HIS  CONFESSION. 


505 


His  first  thought  was  to  request  the  papal  nuncio,  Gaetano, 
to  despatch  a  special  courier  to  Borne  to  request  the  pope’s 
benediction.  This  was  done,  and  it  was  destined  that  the 
blessing  of  his  Holiness  should  arrive  in  time. 

He  next  piepared  himself  to  make  a  general  confession, 
which  lasted  three  days,  father  Diego  having  drawn  up  at  his 
request  a  full  and  searching  interrogatory.  The  confession 
may  have  been  made  the  more  simple,  however,  by  the 
statement  which  he  made  to  the  priest,  and  subsequently 
repeated  to  the  Infante  his  son,  that  in  all  his  life  he  had 
never  consciously  done  wrong  to  any  one.  If  he  had -ever 
committed  an  act  of  injustice,  it  was  unwittingly,  or  because 
he  had  been  deceived  in  the  circumstances.  This  internal 
conviction  of  general  righteousness  was  of  great  advantage  to 
him  m  the  midst  of  his  terrible  sufferings,  and  accounted 
in  great  degree  for  the  gentleness,  thoughtfulness  for  others, 
and  .  perfect  benignity,  which,  according  to  the  unanimous 
testimony  of  many  witnesses,  characterised  his  conduct  during 
this  whole  sickness. 

Aftei  he  had  completed  his  long  general  confession,  the 
saci ament  of  the  Lord’s  Supper  was  administered  to  him. 
Subsequently,  the  same  rites  were  more  briefly  performed 
every  few  days. 

His  sufferings  were  horrible,  but  no  saint  could  have 
manifested  in  them  more  gentle  resignation  or  angelic 
patience.  He  moralized  on  the  condition  to  which&the 
greatest  princes  might  thus  be  brought  at  last  by  the  hand  of 
God,,  and  bade  the  prince  observe  well  his  father’s  present 
condition,  in  order  that,  when  he  too  should  be  laid  thus  low, 
he  might  likewise  be  sustained  by  a  conscience  void  of 
offence.  He  constantly  thanked  his  assistants  and  nurses  for 
their  care,  insisted  upon  their  reposing  themselves  after  their 

daily  fatigues,  and  ordered  others  to  relieve  them  in  their 
task. 

He  derived  infinite  consolation  from  the  many  relics  of 
saints,  of  which,  as  has  been  seen,  he  had  made  plentiful 
piovision  during  his  long  reign.  Especially  a  bone  of  St. 


% 


506  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXV. 

Alban,  presented  to  him  by  Clement  VIII.,  in  view  of  bis 
present  straits,  was  of  great  service.  With  this  relic,  and 
with  the  arm  of  St.  Vincent  of  Ferrara,  and  the  knee-bone 
of  St.  Sebastian,  he  daily  rubbed  his  sores,  keeping  the 
sacred  talismans  ever  in  his  sight  on  the  altar,  which  was  not 
far  from  his  bed.  He  was  much  pleased  when  the  priests  and 
other  bystanders  assured  him  that  the  remains  of  these  holy 
men  would  be  of  special  efficacy  to  him,  because  he  had 
cherished  and  worshipped  them  in  times  when  misbelievers 
and  heretics  had  treated  them  with  disrespect. 

On  a  sideboard  in  his  chamber  a  human  skull  was  placed, 
and  upon  this  skull — in  ghastly  mockery  of  royalty,  in  truth, 
yet  doubtless  in  the  conviction  that  such  an  exhibition 
showed  the  superiority  of  anointed  kings  even  over  death — 
he  ordered  his  servants  to  place  a  golden  crown.11  And  thus, 
during  the  whole  of  his  long  illness,  the  Antic  held  his  state, 
while  the  poor  mortal  representative  of  absolute  power  lay 
living  still,  but  slowly  mouldering  away. 

With  perfect  composure,  and  with  that  minute  attention  to 
details  which  had  characterised  the  king  all  his  lifetime,  and 
was  now  more  evident  than  ever,  he  caused  the  provisions  for 
his  funeral  obsequies  to  be  read  aloud  one  day  by  Juan  Ruys 
de  Velasco,  in  order  that  his  children,  his  ministers,  and  the 
great  officers  of  state  who  were  daily  in  attendance  upon 
him,  might  thoroughly  learn  their  lesson  before  the  time 
came  for  performing  the  ceremony. 

“  Having  governed  my  kingdom  for  forty  years,"  said  he, 
“  I  now  give  it  back,  in  the  seventy-first  year  of  my  age, 
to  God  Almighty,  to  whom  it  belongs,  recommending  my 
soul  into  His  blessed  hands,  that  His  Divine  Majesty  may 
do  what  He  pleases  therewith." 

He  then  directed  that  after  his  body  should  have  been 
kept  as  long  as  the  laws  prescribed,  it  should  be  buried 
thus : — 

The  officiating  bishop  was  to  head  the  procession,  bearing 
the  crucifix,  and  followed  by  the  clergy. 

11  Bor,  IV.  473. 


lo98.  HIS  ARRANGEMENTS  FOR  HIS  FUNERAL.  $()7 

Tlie  Adelantado  was  to  come  next,  trailing  the  royal 
standard  along  tlie  ground.  Tlien  the  Duke  of  Novara  was 
to  appear,  bearing  the  crown  on  an  open  salver,  covered  with 

a  black  cloth,  while  the  Marquis  of  Avillaer  carried  the 
sword  of  state. 

The  coffin  was  to  be  borne  by  eight  principal  grandees, 
clad  in  mourning  habiliments,  and  holding  lighted  torches. 

The  heir  apparent  was  to  follow,  attended  by  Don  Grarcia 
Loyasa,  who  had  just  been  consecrated,  in  the  place  of 
Cardinal  Albert,  as  Archbishop  of  Toledo. 

The  body  was  to  be  brought  to  the  church,  and  placed  in 
the  stately  tomb  already  prepared  for  its  reception.  “  Mass 
being  performed/'  said  the  king,  “  the  prelate  shall  place  me 
in  the  grave  which  'shall  be  my  last  house  until  I  go  to 
my  eternal  dwelling.  Then  the  prince,  third  king  of  my 
name,  shall  go  into  the  cloister  of  St.  J erome  at  Madrid,  where 
he  shall  keep  nine  days  mourning.  My  daughter,  and  her 
aunt — my  sister,  the  ex-empress — shall  for  the  same  purpose 
go  to  the  convent  of  the  grey  sisters/’ 12 

The  king  then  charged  his  successor  to  hold  the  Infanta  in 
especial  affection  and  consideration  ;  “  for,”  said  he,  “  she  has 
been  my  mirror,  yea,  the  light  of  my  eyes.”  .  He  also  ordered 
that  the  Marquis  of  Mondejar  be  taken  from  prison  and  set 
free,  on  condition  never  to  show  himself  at  Court.  The  wife 
of  Antonio  Perez  was  also  to  be  released  from  prison,  in  order 
that  she  might  be  immured  in  a  cloister,  her  jwoperty  being 
bestowed  upon  her  daughters. 

As  this  unfortunate  lady’s  only  crime  consisted  in  her 
husband’s  intrigue  with  the  king’s  mistress,  Princess  Eboli,  in 
which  she  could  scarcely  be  considered  an  accomplice,  this 
pei  mission  to  exchange  one  form  of  incarceration  for  another 
did  not  seem  an  act  of  veiy  great  benignity. 

Philip  further  provided  that  thirty  thousand  masses  should 
be  said  for  his  soul,  five  hundred  slaves  liberated  from  the 
galleys,  and  five  hundred  maidens  provided  with  marriage 
portions. 


12  Bor,  IV.  473,  474. 


508 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS 


Chap.  XXXV. 


After  these  elaborate  instructions  had  been  read,  the  king 
ordered  a  certain  casket  to  be  brought  to  him  and  opened  in 
his  presence  •  From  this  he  took  forth  a  diamond  of  great 
price  and  gave  it  to  the  Infanta,  saying  that  it  had  belonged 
to  her  mother,  Isabella  of  France.  He  asked  the  prince  if 
he  consented  to  the  gift.  The  prince'  answered  in  the 
affirmative. 

He  next  took  from  the  coffer  a  written  document,  which  he 
handed  to  his  son,  saying,  “  Herein  you  will  learn  how  to 
govern  your  kingdoms/' 

Then  he  produced  a  scourge,  which  he  said  was  the 
instrument  with  which  his  father,  the  emperor,  had  been  in 
the  habit  of  chastising  himself  during  his  retreat  at  the 
monastery  of  Juste.  He  told  the  by-standers  to  observe 
the  imperial  blood  by  which  the  lash  was  still  slightly 
stained. 

As  the  days  wore  on  he  felt  himself  steadily  sinking,  and 
asked  to  receive  extreme  unction.  As  he  had  never  seen 
that  rite  performed  he  chose  to  rehearse  it  beforehand,  and 
told  Ruys  V elasco,  who  was  in  constant  attendance  upon  him, 
to  go  for  minute  instructions  on  the  subject  to  the  Archbishop 
of  Toledo.  The  sacrament  having  been  duly  administered, 
the  king  subsequently,  on  the  1st  September,  desired  to 
receive  it  once  more.  The  archbishop,  fearing  that  the  dying 
monarch's  strength  would  be  insufficient  for  the  repetition  of 
the  function,  informed  him  that  the  regulations  of  the  Church 
required  in  such  cases  only  a  compliance  with  certain  trifling 
forms,  as  the  ceremony  had  been  already  once  thoroughly 
carried  out.  But  the  king  expressed  himself  as  quite  deter¬ 
mined  that  the  sacrament  should  be  repeated  in  all  its  parts  ; 
that  he  should  once  more  be  anointed — to  use  the  phrase  of 
brother  Francis  Heyen — with  the  oil  which  holy  athletes 
require  in  their  wrestle  with  death. 

This  was  accordingly  done  in  the  presence  of  his  son  and 
daughter,  and  of  his  chief  secretaries,  Christopher  de  Moura 
and  John  de  Idiaquez,  besides  the  Counts  Chinchon,  Fuen- 
salido,  and  several  other  conspicuous  personages.  He  was 


1598. 


HIS  PREPARATION  FOR  DEATH. 


509 


especially  desirous  that  his  son  should  he  present,  in  order 
that,  when  he  too  should  come  to  die,  he  might  not  find 
himself,  like  his  father,  in  ignorance  of  the  manner  in  which 
this  last  sacrament  was  to  he  performed. 

When  it  was  finished  he  described  himself  as  infinitely 
consoled,  and  as  having  derived  even  more  happiness  from 
the  rite  than  he  had  dared  to  anticipate. 

Thenceforth  he  protested  that  he  would  talk  no  more  of 
the  world’s  affairs.  He  had  finished  with  all  things  below, 
and  for  the  days  or  hours  still  remaining  to  him  he  would 
keep  his  heart  exclusively  fixed  upon  Heaven.  Day  by  day 
as  he  lay  on  his  couch  of  unutterable  and  almost  unexampled 
misery,  his  confessors  and  others  read  to  him  from  religious 
works,  while  with  perfect  gentleness  he  would  insist  that 
one  reader  should  relieve  another,  that  none  might  be 
fatigued. 

On  the  11th  September  he  dictated  these  words  to 
Christopher  de  Moura,  who  was  to  take  them 
to  Diego  de  Yepes,  the  confessor  :  —  ^ept* 

“  Father  Confessor,  you  are  in  the  place  of  Cod,  and  I 
protest  thus  before  His  presence  that  I  will  do  all  that  you 
declare  necessary  for  my  salvation.  Thus  upon  you  will  be 
the  responsibility  for  my  omissions,  because  I  am  ready  to 
do  all.” 

Finding  that  the  last  hour  was  approaching,  he  informed 
Don  Fernando  de  Toledo  where  he  could  find  some  candles 
of  our  lady  of  Montserrat,  one  of  which  he  desired  to  keep  in 
his  hand  at  the  supreme  moment.  He  also  directed  Buys 
de  Velasco  to  take  from  a  special  shrine — which  he  had 
indicated  to  him  six  years  before — a  crucifix  which  the 
emperor  his  father  had  held  upon  his  death-bed.  All  this 
was  accomplished  according  to  his  wish. 

He  had  already  made  arrangements  for  his  funeral  pro¬ 
cession,  and  had  subsequently  provided  all  the  details  of  his 
agony.  It  was  now  necessary  to  give  orders  as  to  the  par¬ 
ticulars  of  his  burial. 

He  knew  that  decomposition  had  made  such  progress  even 


510 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


CnAP.  XXXV. 


while  lie  was  still  living  as  to  render  embalming  impossible. 
He  accordingly  instructed  Don  Christopher  to  see  his  body 
wrapped  in  a  shroud  just  as  it  lay,  and  to  cause  it  to  be  placed 
in  a  well-soldered  metallic  coffin  already  provided.  The 
coffin  of  state,  in  which  the  leaden  one  was  to  be  enclosed, 
was  then  brought  into  the  chamber  by  his  command,  that  he 
might  see  if  it  was  entirely  to  his  taste.  Having  examined 
it,  he  ordered  that  it  should  be  lined  with  white  satin  and 
ornamented  with  gold  nails  and  lace-work.  He  also  described 
a  particular  brocade  of  black  and  gold,  to  be  found  in  the 
jewel -room,  which  he  desired  for  the  pall. 

Next  morning  he  complained  to  Don  Christopher  that 
12  Sept,  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord’s  Supper  had  not  been 
administered  to  him  for  several  days.  It  was  urged 
that  his  strength  was  deemed  insufficient,  and  that,  as  he  had 
received  that  rite  already  four  times  during  his  illness,  and 
extreme  unction  twice,  it  was  thought  that  the  additional 
fatigue  might  be  spared  him.  But  as  the  king  insisted,  the 
sacrament  was  once  more  performed  and  prayers  were  read. 
He  said  with  great  fervour  many  times,  “  Pater,  non  mea 
voluntas,  sed  tua  fiat.  He  listened,  too,  with  much  devotion 
to  the  Psalm,  “As  the  hart  panteth  for  the  water-brooks 
and  he  spoke  faintly  at  long  intervals  of  the  Magdalen,  of 
the  prodigal  son,  and  of  the  paralytic. 

When  these  devotional  exercises  had  been  concluded,  father 
Diego  expressed  the  hope  to  him  that  he  might  then  pass 
away,  for  it  would  be  a  misfortune  by  temporary  convalescence 
to  fall  from  the  exaltation  of  piety  which  he  had  then  reached. 
The  remark  was  heard  by  Philip  with  an  expression  of  entire 
satisfaction. 

That  day  both  the  Infanta  and  the  prince  came  for  the  last 
time  to  his  bedside  to  receive  his  blessing.  He  tenderly 
expressed  his  regret  to  his  daughter  that  he  had  not  been 
permitted  to  witness  her  marriage,  but  charged  her  never  to 
omit  any  exertion  to  augment  and  sustain  the  holy  Roman 
Catholic  religion  in  the  Netherlands.  It  was  in  fhe  interest 


1508 


LAST  HOURS  OF  PHILIP  II. 


511 


of  that  holy  Church  alone  that  he  had  endowed  her  with 
those  provinces,  and  he  now  urged  it  upon  her  with  his  dying 
breath  to  impress  upon  her  future  husband  these  his  com¬ 
mands  to  both. 

His  two  children  took  leave  of  him  with  tears  and  sobs. 
As  the  prince  left  the  chamber  he  asked  Don  Christopher 
who  it  was  that  held  the  key  to  the  treasury. 

The  secretary  replied,  “  It  is  I,  Sir.”  The  prince  demanded 
that  he  should  give  it  into  his  hands.  But  Don  Christopher 
excused  himself,  saying  that  it  had  been  entrusted  to  him  by 
the  king,  and  that  without  his  consent  he  could  not  part 
with  it.  Then  the  prince  returned  to  the  king's  chamber, 
followed  by  the  secretary,  who  narrated  to  the  dying  monarch 
what  had  taken  place. 

u  You  have  done  wrong,"  said  Philip  ;  *■ whereupon  Don 
Christopher,  bowing  to  the  earth,  presented  the  key  to  the 
prince. 

The  king  then  feebly  begged  those  about  his  bedside  to 
repeat  the  dying  words  of  our  Saviour  on  the  cross,  in  order 
that  he  might  hear  them  and  repeat  them  in  his  heart  as  his 
soul  was  taking  flight. 

His  father's  crucifix  wras  placed  in  his  hands,  and  he 
said  distinctly,  “I  die  like  a  good  Catholic,  in  faith  and 
obedience  to  the  holy  Roman  Church."  Soon  after  these  last 
words  had  been  spoken,  a  paroxysm,  followed  by  faintness, 
came  over  him,  and  he  lay  entirely  still. 

They  had  covered  his  face  with  a  cloth,  thinking  that  he 
had  already  expired,  when  he  suddenly  started,  with  great 
energy,  opened  his  eyes,  seized  the  crucifix  again  from  .the 
hand  of  Don  Fernando  de  Toledo,  kissed  it,  and  fell  back 
again  into  agony. 

The  archbishop  and  the  other  priests  expressed  the  opinion 
that  he  must  have  had,  not  a  paroxysm,  but  a  celestial  vision, 
for  human  powers  would  not  have  enabled  him  to  arouse 
himself  so  quickly  and  so  vigorously  as  he  had  done  at  that 
crisis. 


512 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXV. 


He  did  not  speak  again,  but  lay  unconsciously  dying  for 
some  hours,  and  breathed  his  last  at  five  in  the 
13  Sept’  morning  of  Sunday  the  13th  September.13 
His  obsequies  were  celebrated  according  to  the  directions 
which  he  had  so  minutely  given. 


These  volumes  will  have  been  written  in  vain  if  it  be  now 
necessary  to  recal  to  my  readers  the  leading  events  in  the 
history  of  the  man  who  had  thus  left  the  world  where,  almost 
invisible  himself,  he  had  so  long  played  a  leading  part.  It 
may  not  be  entirely  useless,  however,  to  throw  a  parting 
glance  at  a  character  which  it  has  been  one  of  the  main 
objects  of  this  work,  throughout  its  whole  course,  to  pour  tray. 
My  theme  has  been  the  reign  of  Philip  II.  because,  as  the 
less  is  included  in  the  greater,  the  whole  of  that  reign,  with 
the  exception  of  a  few  episodes,  is  included  in  the  vast  move¬ 
ment  out  of  which  the  Eepublic  of  the  United  Netherlands 
was  born  and  the  assailed  independence  of  France  and 
England  consolidated.  The  result  of  Philip's  efforts  to 
establish  a  universal  monarchy  was  to  hasten  the  decline 
of  the  empire  which  he  had  inherited,  by  aggravating  the 
evils  which  had  long  made  that  downfall  inevitable. 

It  is  from  no  abstract  hatred  to  monarchy  that  I  have* 
dwelt  with  emphasis  upon  the  crimes  of  this  king,  and  upon 
the  vices  of  the  despotic  system,  as  illustrated  during  his  life¬ 
time.  It  is  not  probable  that  the  military,  monarchical  system 

— founded  upon  conquests  achieved  by  barbarians  and  pirates 
» 

of  a  distant  epoch  over  an  effete  civilization  and  over  antique 
institutions  of  intolerable  profligacy — will  soon  cQme  to  an 
end  in  the  older  world.  And  it  is  the  business  of  Europeans 
so  to  deal  with  the  institutions  of  their  inheritance  or  their 
choice  as  to  ensure  their  steady  melioration  and  to  provide  for 

13  The  last  illness  of  Philip  is  de¬ 
scribed  with  every  minute  detail,  de¬ 
rived  from  narratives  of  eye-witnesses, 
by  Bor,  IV.  472-474 ;  and  by  Herrera, 


iii.  774-778.  Compare  also  the  Rela- 
zione  of  F.  Soranzo  already  cited,  150- 
153. 


EE  VIEW  OF  PHILIP’S  REIGN. 


513 

the  highest  interests  of  the  people.  It  matters  comparatively 
little  by  what  name  a  government  is  called,  so  long  as  the 
intellectual  and  moral  develojornent  of  mankind,  and  the 
maintenance  of  justice  among  individuals,  are  its  leading 
principles.*  A  government,  like  an  individual,  may  remain 
far  below  its  ideal  •  but,  without  an  ideal,  governments  and 

individuals  are  alike  contemptible.  It  is  tyranny  only _ 

whether  individual  or  popular— that  utters  its  feeble  sneers 
at  the  ideologists,  as  if  mankind  were  brutes  to  whom  in¬ 
stincts  were  all  in  all  and  ideas  nothing.  Y^here  intellect  and 
justice  are  enslaved  by  that  unholy  trinity — Force,  Dogma, 
and  Ignorance — the  tendency  of  governments,  and  of  those 
subjected  to  them,  must  of  necessity  be  retrograde  and 
downward. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  to  those  who  observe  the  move¬ 
ments  of  mankind  during  the  course  of  the  fourteen  centuries 
since  the  fall  of  the  Boman  Empire — a  mere  fragment  of 
human  history — that  its  progress,  however  concealed  or  im¬ 
peded,  and  whether  for  weal  or  woe,  is  towards  democracy ; 
for  it  is  the  tendency  of  science  to  liberate  and  to  equalize 
the  physical  and  even  the  intellectual  forces  of  humanity. 
A  horse  and  a  suit  of  armour  would  now  hardly  enable  the 
fortunate  possessor  of  such  advantages  to  conquer  a  kingdom 
nor  can  wealth  and  learning  be  monopolised  in  these  latter 
days  by  a  favoured  few.  Yet  veneration  for  a  crown  and  a 
privileged  church— as  if  without  them  and  without  their 
close  connection  with  each  other  law  and  religion  were 
impossible — makes  hereditary  authority  sacred  to  great  masses 
of  mankind  in  the  old  world.  The  obligation  is  the  more 
stringent,  therefore,  on  men  thus  set  apart  as  it  were  by 
primordial  selection  for  ruling  and  instructing  their  fellow- 
creatures,  to  keep  their  edicts  and  their  practice  in  harmony 
with  divine  justice.  For  these  rules  cannot  be  violated  with 
impunity  during  a  long  succession  of  years,  and  it  is  usually 
left  for  a  comparatively  innocent  generation  to  atone  for  the 
sins  of  their  forefathers.  If  history  does  not  teach  this  it. 
teaches  nothing,  and  as  the  rules  of  morality,  whether  for 
vol.  hi. — 2  L 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXV. 


514 


individuals  or  for  nations,  are  simple  and  devoid  of  mystery, 
there  is  the  less  excuse  for  governments  which  habitually  and 

cynically  violate  the  eternal  law. 

Among  self-evident  truths  not  one  is  more  indisputable 
than  that  which,  in  the  immortal  words  of  our  Declaration  of 
Independence,  asserts  the  right  of  every  human  being  to  life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  ;  but  the  only  happiness 
that  can  be  recognised  by  a  true  statesman  as  the  birthright 
of  mankind  is  that  which  comes  from  intellectual  and  moral 
development,  and  from  the  subjugation  of  the  brutal  instincts. 

A  system  according  to  which  clowns  remain  clowns  through 
all  the  ages,  unless  when  extraordinary  genius  or  fortunate 
accident  enables  an  exceptional  individual  to  overleap  the 
barrier  of  caste,  necessarily  retards  the  result  to  which  the 
philosopher  looks  forward  with  perfect  faith. 

For  us,  whose  business  it  is  to  deal  with,  and,  so  far  as 
human  fallibility  will  permit,  to  improve  our  inevitable  form 
of  government — which  may  degenerate  into  the  most  intoler¬ 
able  of  polities  unless  we  are  ever  mindful  that  it  is  yet  in 
its  rudimental  condition  ;  that,  although  an  immense  step  . 
has  been  taken  in  the  right  direction  by  the  abolition  of  caste, 
the  divorce  of  Church  and  State,  and  the  limitation  of  intrusion 
by  either  on  the  domain  of  the  individual,  it  is  yet  only  a 
step  from  which,  without  eternal  vigilance,  a  falling  back  is 
very  easy  ;  and  that  here,  more  than  in  other  lands,  ignorance 
of  the  scientific  and  moral  truths  on  which  national  happiness 
and  prosperity  depend,  deserves  bitter  denunciation — for  us 
it  is  wholesome  to  confirm  our  faith  in  democracy,  and  to 
justify  our  hope  that  the  People  will  prove  itself  equal  to  the 
*  awful  responsibility  of  self-government  by  an  occasional  study 
of  the  miseries  which  the  opposite  system  is  capable  of  pro¬ 
ducing.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  reign  of  the  sovereign 
wli$se  closing  moments  have  just  been  recorded  is  especially- 
worthy  of  a  minute  examination,  and  I  still  invite  a  parting 
^  glance  at  the  spectacle  thus  presented,  before  the  curtain 
falls. 

The  Spanish  monarchy  in  the  reign  of  Philip  II.  w*is  not 


VAST  EXTENT  OF  HIS  DOMINIONS. 


515 


only  the  most  considerable  empire  then  existing,  hut  probably 
the  most  powerful  and  extensive  empire  that  had  ever  been 
known.  Certainly  never  before  had  so  great  an  agglomera¬ 
tion  of  distinct  and  separate  sovereignties  been  th,e  result  of 
accident.  For  it  was  owing  to  a  series  of  accidents — in  the 
common  acceptation  of  that  term- — that  Philip  governed  so 
mighty  a  realm.  According  to  the  principle  that  vast  tracts 
of  the  earth’s  surface,  with  the  human  beings  feeding  upon 
them,  were  transferable  in  fee-simple  from  one  man  or 
woman  to  another  by  marriage,  inheritance,  or  gift,  a  hetero¬ 
geneous  collecfion  of  kingdoms,  principalities,  provinces,  and 
wildernesses  had  been  consolidated,  without  geographical 
continuity,  into  an  artificial  union— the  populations  differing 
from  each  other  as  much  as  human  beings  can  differ,  in 
race,  language,  institutions,  and  historical  traditions,  and 
resembling  each  other  in  little,  save  in  being  the  property 
alike  of  the  same  fortunate  individual. . 

Thus  the  dozen  kingdoms  of  Spain,  the  seventeen  pro¬ 
vinces  of  the  Netherlands,  the  kingdoms  of  the  Two  Sicilies, 
the  duchy  of  Milan,  and  certain  fortresses  and  districts  of 
Tuscany,  in  Europe  ;  the  kingdom  of  Barbary,  the  coast  of 
Guinea,  and  an  indefinite  and  unmeasured  expanse  of  other 
territory,  in  Africa  ;  the  controlling  outposts  and  cities  all 
along  the  coast  of  the  two  Indian  peninsulas,  with  as  much  of 
the  country  as  it  seemed  good  to  occupy,  the  straits  and  the 
great  archipelagoes,  so  far  as  they  had  been  visited  by  Euro¬ 
peans,  in  Asia ;  Peru,  Brazil,  Mexico,  the  Antilles — the 
whole  recently  discovered  fourth  quarter  of  the  world  in 
short,  from  the  “Land  of  Fire”  in  the  South  to  the  frozen 
regions  of  the  North — as  much  territory  as  the  Spanish  and 
Portuguese  sea-captains  could  circumnavigate  and  the  pope 
in  the  plentitude  of  his  power  and  ’his  generosity  could  be¬ 
stow  on  his  fortunate  son,  in  America  ;  all  this  enormous 
proportion  of  the  habitable  globe  was  the  private  property 
of  Philip,  wdio  was  the  son  of  Charles,  who  was  the  son  of 
Joanna,  who  was  the  daughter  of  Isabella,  whose  husband 
was  Ferdinand.  By  what  seems  to  us  the  most  whimsical 


516 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXV. 


of  political  arrangements,  the  Papuan  islander,  the  Calabrian 
peasant,  the  Amsterdam  merchant,  the  semi-civilized  Aztec, 
the  Moor  of  Barbary,  the  Castilian  grandee,  the  roving 
Camanche,  the  Guinea  negro,  the  Indian  Brahmin,  found 
themselves — could  they  hut  have  known  it — fellow-citizens  of 
one  commonwealth.  Statutes  of  family  descent,  aided  by 
fraud,  force,  and  chicane,  had  annexed  the  various  European 
sovereignties  to  the  crown  of  Spain  ;  the  genius  of  a  Genoese 
sailor  had  given  to  it  the  New  World,  and  more  recently  the 
conquest  of  Portugal,  torn  from  hands  not  strong  enough  to 
defend  the  national  independence,  had  vestecl  in  the  same 
sovereignty  those  Oriental  possessions  which  were  due  to  the 
enterprise  of  Vasco  de  Gama,  his  comrades  and  successors. 
The  voyager,  setting  forth  from  the  straits  of  Gibraltar, 
circumnavigating  the  African  headlands  and  Cape  Comorin, 
and  sailing  through  the  Molucca  channel  and  past  the  isles 
which  bore  the  name  of  Philip  in  the  Eastern  sea,  gave  the 
hand  at  last  to  his  adventurous  comrade,  who,  starting  from 
the  same  point,  and  following  westward  in  the  track  of 
Magellaens  and  under  the  Southern  Cross,  coasted  the  shore 
of  Patagonia,  and  threaded  his  path  through  unmapped 
and  unnumbered'  clusters  of  islands  in  the  Western  Pacific  ; 
and  during  this  spanning  of  the  earth's  whole  circumference 
not  an  inch  of  land  or  water  was  traversed  that  was  not  the 
domain  of  Philip. 

For  the  sea,  too,  was  his  as  well  as  the  dry  land. 

From  Borneo  to  California  the  great  ocean  was  but  a 
Spanish  lake,  as  much  the  king's  private  property  as  his 
fish-ponds  at  the.  Escorial  with  their  carp  and  perch.  No 
subjects  but  his  dared  to  navigate  those  sacred  waters.  Not 
a  common  highway  of  the  world's  commerce,  but  a  private 
path  for  the  gratification  of  one  human  being's  vanity,  had 
thus  been  laid  out  by  the  bold  navigators  of  the  sixteenth 
century. 

It  was  for  the  Dutch  rebels  to  try  conclusions  upon  this 
point,  as  they  had  done  upon  so  many  others,  with  the  master 
of  the  land  and  sea.  The  opening  scenes  therefore  in  the 


GREATNESS  AND  VARIETY  OF  HIS  RESOURCES.  517 

great  career  of  maritime  adventure  and  discovery  by  which 
these  republicans  were  to  make  themselves  famous  will  soon 
engage  the  reader's  attention. 

Thus  the  causes  of  what  is  called  the  greatness  of  Spain 
aie  not  far  to  seek.  Spain  was  not  a  nation,  but  a  temporary 
and’ factitious  conjunction  of  several  nations,  which  it  was 
impossible  to  fuse  into  a  permanent  whole,  but  over  whose 
united  resources  a  single  monarch  for  a  time  disposed.  And 
the  very  concentration  of  these  vast  and  unlimited  powers, 
fortuitous  as  it  was,  in  this  single  hand,  inspiring  the  indi¬ 
vidual,  not  unnaturally,  with  a  consciousness  of  superhuman 
grandeur,  impelled  him  to  those  frantic  and  puerile  efforts  to 
achieve  the  impossible  which  resulted  in  the  downfall  of 
Spain.  The  man  who  inherited  so  much  material*  greatness 
believed  himself  capable  of  destroying  the  invisible  but  omni¬ 
potent  spirit  of  religious  and  political  liberty  in  the  Nether¬ 
lands,  of  trampling  out  the  national  existence  of  France  and 
of  England,  and  of  annexing  those  realms  to  his  empire. 
It  has  been  my  task  to  relate,  with  much  minuteness,  how 
miserably  his  .efforts  failed. 

But  his  resources  were  great.  All  Italy  was  in  his  hands, 
with  the  single  exception  of  the  Venetian  republic ;  for  the 
Grand  Duke  of  Florence  and  the  so-called  republic  of  Genoa 
were  little  more  than  his  vassals,  the  pope  was  generally  his 
other  self,  and  the  Duke  of  Savoy  was  his  son-in-law.  Thus 
his-  armies,  numbering  usually  a  hundred  thousand  men, 
were  supplied  from  the  best  possible  sources.  The  Italians 
were  esteemed  the  best  soldiers  for  siege,  assault,  light  skir¬ 
mishing.  The  German  heavy  troopers  and  arquebuseers  were 
the  most  effective  for  open  field-work,  and  these  were  to  be 

purchased  at  reasonable  prices  and  to  indefinite  amount  from 

any  of  the  three  or  four  hundred  petty  sovereigns  to  whom 
what  was  called  Germany  belonged.  The  Sicilian  and  Nea¬ 
politan  pikemen,  the  Milanese  light-horse,  belonged  exclusively 
to  Philip,  and  were  used,  year  after  year,  for  more  than  a 
generation  of  mankind,  to  fight  battles  in  which  they  had  no 
more  interest  than  had  their  follow-subjects  in  the  Moluccas 


518  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXV. 

or  in  Mexico,  but  which  constituted  for  them  personally  as 
lucrative  a  trade  on  the  whole  as  was  afforded  them  at  that  day 
by  any  branch  of  industry. 

Silk,  corn,  wine,  and  oil  were  furnished  in  profusion  from 
these  favoured  regions,  not  that  the  inhabitants  might  enjoy 
life,  and,  by  accumulating  wealth,  increase  the  stock  of 
human  comforts  and  contribute  to  intellectual  and  scientific 
advancement,  but  in  order  that  the  proprietor  of  the  soil 
might  feed  those  eternal  armies  ever  swarming  from  the 
south  to  scatter  desolation  over  the  plains  of  France,  Bur¬ 
gundy,  Flanders,  and  Holland,  and  to  make  the  crown  of 
Spain  and  the  office  of  the  Holy  Inquisition  supreme  over 
the  world.  From  Naples  and  Sicily  were  derived  in  great 
plenty  the  best  materials  and  conveniences  for  ship-building 
and  marine  equipment.  The  galleys  and  the  galley-slaves 
furnished  by  these  subject  realms  formed  the  principal  part 
of  the  royal  navy.  From  distant  regions,  a  commerce  which 
in  Philip's  days  had  become  oceanic  supplied  the  crown  with 
as  much  revenue  as  could  be  expected  in  a  period  of  gross 
ignorance  as  to  the  causes  of  the  true  grandeur  and  the 
true  wealth  of  nations.  Especially  from  the  mines  of  Mexico 
came  an  annual  average  of  ten  or  twelve  millions  of  precious 
metals,  of  which  the  king  took  twenty-five  per  cent,  for 
himself. 

It  would  be  difficult  and  almost  superfluous  to  indicate  the 
various  resources  placed  in  the  hands  of  this  one  personage, 
who  thus  controlled  so  large  a  portion  of  the  earth.  All  that 
breathed  or  grew  belonged  to  him,  and  most  steadily  was  the 
stream  of  blood  and  treasure  poured  through  the  sieve  of  his 
perpetual  war.  His  system  was  essentially  a  gigantic  and 
perpetual  levy  of  contributions  in  kind,  and  it  is  only  in  this 
vague  and  unsatisfactory  manner  that  the  revenues  of  his 
empire  can  be  stated.  A  despot  really  keeps  no  accounts, 
nor  need  to  do  so,  for  he  is  responsible  to  no  man  for  the  way 
in  which  he  husbands  or  squanders  his  own.  Moreover,  the 
science  of  statistics  had  not  a  beginning  of  existence  in  those 
days,  and  the  most  common  facts  can  hardly  be  obtained, 


HIS  REVENUE— ITS  ESTIMATED  VALUE.  51 9 

even  by  approximation.  *The  usual  standard  of  value;  the 
commodity  which  we  call  money — gold  or  silver — is  well 
known  to  he  at  best  a  fallacious  guide  for  estimating  the 
comparative  wealth  of  individuals  or  of  nations  at  widely 
different  epochs.  The  dollar  of  Philip's  day  was  essentially 
the  same  bit  of  silver  that  it  is  in  our  time  in  Spain,  Naples, 
Pome,  or  America,  but  even  should  an  elaborate  calculation 
be  made  as  to  the  quantity  of  beef  or  bread  or  broadcloth  to 
•be  obtained  for  that  bit  of  silver  in  this  or  that  place  in  the 
middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  result,  as  compared  with 
prices  now  prevalent,  would  show  many  remarkable  discre¬ 
pancies.  Thus  a  bushel  of  wheat  at  Antwerp  during  Philip's 
reign  might  cost  a  quarter  of  a  dollar,  in  average  years,  and 
there  have  been  seasons  in  our  own  time  when  two  bushels  of 
wheat  could  have  been  bought  for  a  quarter  of  a  dollar  in 
Illinois.  Yet  if,  notwithstanding  this,  we  should  allow  a 
tenfold  value  in  exchange  to  the  dollar  of  Philip's  day,. we 
should  be  surprised  at  the  meagreness  of  his  revenues,  of 
his  expenditures,  and  of  the  debts  which  at  the  close  of  his 
career  brought  him  to  bankruptcy ;  were  the  sums  estimated 
in  coin. 

Thus  his  income  wTas  estimated  by  careful  contemporary 
statesmen  at  what  seemed  to  them  the  prodigious  annual 
amount  of  sixteen  millions  of  dollars.  He  carried  on  a  vast 
war  without  interruption  during  the  whole  of  his  forty -three 
years'  reign  against  the  most  wealthy  and  military  nations  of 
Christendom  not  recognising  his  authority,  and  in  so  doing  he 
is  said  to  have  expended  a  sum  total  of  seven  hundred  mil¬ 
lions  of  dollars— a  statement  which  made  men's  hair  stand  on 
their  heads.  Yet  the  American  republic,  during  its  civil  war 
to  repress  the  insurrection  of  the  slaveholders,  has  spent 
nominally  as  large  a  sum  as  this  every  year  ;  and  the  British 
Empire  in  time  of  profound  peace  spends  half  as  much 
annually.  And  even  if  we  should  allow  sixteen  millions  to 
have  represented  the  value  of  a  hundred  and  sixty  millions 
— a  purely  arbitrary  supposition — as  compared  with  our 
t*imes,  what  are  a  hundred  and  sixty  millions  of  dollars,  or 


520 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXV. 


thirty-three  millions  of  pounds  sterling  as  the  whole  net 
revenue  of  the  greatest  empire  that  had  ever  existed  in  the 
world,  when  compared  with  the  accumulated  treasures  over 
which  civilized  and  industrious  countries  can  now  dispose  ? 
Thus  the  power  of  levying  men  and  materials  in  kind  con¬ 
stituted  the  chief  part  of  the  royal  power,  and,  in  truth,  very 
little  revenue  in  money  was  obtained  from  Milan  or  Naples, 
or  from  any  of  the  outlying  European  possessions  of  the 
crown. 

Eight  millions  a  year  were  estimated  as  the  revenue  from 
the  eight  kingdoms  incorporated  under  the  general  name  of 
Castile,  while  not  more  than  six  hundred  thousand  came  from 
the  three  kingdoms  which  constituted  Arragon.14  The  chief 
sources  of  money  receipts  were  a  tax  of  ten  per  cent, 
upon  sales,  paid  by  the  seller,  called  Alcavala,  and  the 
Almoxarifalgo  or  tariff  upon  both  imports  and  exports. 
Besides  these  imposts  he  obtained  about  eight  hundred 
thousand  dollars  a  year  by  selling  to  his  subjects  the  privilege 
of  eating  eggs  upon  fast-days,  according  to  the  permission 
granted  him  by  the  pope  in  the  bull  called  the  Cruzada.15 
He  received  another  annual  million  from  the  Sussidio  and 
the  Excusado.  The  first  was  a  permission  originally  given 
by  the  popes  to  levy  six  hundred  thousand  dollars  a  year 
upon  ecclesiastical  property  for  equipment  of  a  hundred  war- 
galleys  against  the  Saracens,  but  which  had  more  recently 
established  itself  as  a  regular  tax  to  pay  for  naval  hostilities 
against  Dutch  and  English  heretics — a  still  more  malignant 
species  of  unbelievers  in  the  orthodox  eyes  of  the  period. 
The  Excusado  was  the  right  accorded  to  the  king  always  to 
select  from  the  Church  possessions  a  single  benefice  and  to 
appropriate  its  fruit— a  levy  commuted  generally  for  four 
hundred  thousand  dollars  a  year.  Besides  these  regular 
sources  of  income,  large  but  irregular  amounts  of  money  were 
picked  up  by  his  Majesty  in  small  sums,  through  monks  sent 
about  the  country  simply  as  beggars,  under  no  special  license, 
to  collect  alms  from  rich  and  pQor  for  sustaining  the  war 
14  Soranzo.  15  Ibid, 


INDIRECT  SOURCES  OF  INCOME. 


521 

against  the  infidels  of  England  and  Holland.  A  certain 
Jesuit,  father  Sicily  by  name,  had  been  industrious  enough 
at  one  period  in  preaching  this  crusade  to  accumulate  more 
than  a  million  and  a  half,  so  that  a  facetious  courtier  advised 
his  sovereign  to  style  himself  thenceforth  king,  not  of  the 

two,  but  of  the  three  Sicilies,  in  honour  of  the  industrious 
priest.  *■ 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  at  different  periods  during 
Philip's  reign,  and  especially  towards  its  close,  the  whole  of 
his  regular  revenue  was  pledged  to  pay  the  interest  on  his 
debts,  save  only  the  Sussidio  and  the  Cruzada.  Thus  the 
master  of  the  greatest  empire  of  the  earth  had  at  times  no 
income  at  his  disposal  except  the  alms  he  could  solicit  from 
his  poorest  subjects  to  maintain  his  warfare  against  foreign 
miscreants,  the  levy  on  the  Church  for  war-galleys,  and  the 
proceeds  of  his  permission  to  eat  meat  on  Fridays.16  This 
sounds  like  an  epigram,  hut  it  is  a  plain,  incontestable  fh ct. 

Thus  the  levenues  of  his  foreign  dominions  being  nearly 
consumed  by  their  necessary  expenses,  the  measure  of  his 
positive  wealth  was  to  he  found  in  the  riches  of  Spain.  But 
Spain  at  that  day  was  not  an  opulent  country.  It  was  im¬ 
possible  that  it  should  he  rich,  for  nearly  every  law,  according 
to  which  the  prosperity  of  a  country  becomes  progressive^ 
was  habitually  violated.  It  is  difficult  to  state  even  by 
approximation  the  amount  of  its  population,  but  the  kingdoms 
united  under  the  crown  of  Castile  were  estimated  by  con- 
temporaries  to  contain  eight  millions,  while  the  kingdom  of 
Poi  tugal,  together  with  those  annexed  to  Arragon  and  the 
other  provinces  of  the  realm,  must  have  numbered  half  as 
many.  Here  was  a  populous  nation  in  a  favoured  land,  but 
the  foundation  of  all  wealth  was  sapped  by  a  perverted 
moral  sentiment. 

Labour  was  esteemed  dishonourable.  The  Spaniard,  from 
highest  to  lowest,  was  proud,  ignorant,  and  lazy.  For  a  people 
endowed  by  nature  with  many  noble  qualities  —  courage, 
temperance,  frugality,  endurance,  quickness  of  perception,  a 
16  Soranzo.  Compare  Rise  of  Dutch  Republic,  vol.  i.  pt.  ii.  c.  iii 


522 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXY. 


high  sense  of  honour,  a  reverence  for  law — the  course  of  the 
national  history  had  proved  as  ingeniously  had  a  system  of 
general  education  as  could  well  he  invented. 

The  eternal  contests,  century  after  century,  upon  the  soil 
of  Spain  between  the  crescent  and  the  cross,  and  the  remem¬ 
brance  of  the  ancient  days  in  which  Oriental  valour  and 
genius  had  almost  extirpated  Germanic  institutions  and 
Christian  faith  from  the  peninsula,  had  inspired  one  great 
portion  of  the  masses  with  a  hatred,  amounting  almost  to  in¬ 
sanity,  towards  every  form  of  religion  except  the  Church  of 
Rome,  towards  every  race  of  mankind  except  the  Goths  and' 
Yandals.  Innate  reverence  for  established  authority  had 
expanded  into  an  intensity  of  religious  emotion  and  into  a 
fanaticism  of  loyalty  which  caused  the  anointed  monarch 
leading  true  believers  against  infidels  to  be  accepted  as  a 
god.  The  highest  industrial  and  scientific  civilization  that 
had  been  exhibited  upon  Spanish  territory  wTas  that  of  Moors 
and  J ews.  When  in  the  course  of  time  those  races  had  been 
subjugated,  massacred,  or  driven  into  exile,  not  only  was 
Spain  deprived  of  its  highest  intellectual  culture  and  its  most 
productive  labour,  but  intelligence,  science,  and  industry  were 
accounted  degrading,  because  the  mark  of  inferior  and  detested 
peoples. 

The  sentiment  of  self-esteem,  always  a  national  charac¬ 
teristic,  assumed  an  almost  ludicrous  shape.  Not  a  ragged 
Biscayan  muleteer,  not  a  swineherd  of  Estremadura,  that  did 
not  imagine  himself  a  nobleman  because  he  was  not  of  African 
descent;  Not  a  half-starved,  ignorant  brigand,  gaining  his 
living  on  the  highways  and  byways  by  pilfering  or  assassina¬ 
tion,  that  did  not  kneel  on  the  church  pavement  and  listen  to 
orisons  in  an  ancient  tongue,  of  which  he  understood  not  a 
syllable,  with  a  sentiment  of  Christian  self-complacency  to 
which  Godfrey  of  Bouillon  might  have  been  a  stranger. 
Especially  those  born  towards  the  northern  frontier,  and 
therefore  farthest  removed  from  Moorish  contamination,  were 
proudest  of  the  purity  of  their  race.  To  be  an  Asturian  or  a 
Gallician,  however  bronzed  by  sun  and  wind,  was  to  be  -fur- 


TRAITS  OP  SPANISH  CHARACTER. 


523 

nished  with  positive  proof  against  suspicion  of  Moorish  blood  ; 
but  the  sentiment  was  universal  throughout  the  peninsula.17 

It  followed  as  a  matter  of  course  that  labour  of  any  kind 
was  an  impeachment  against  this  gentility  of  descent.  To 
work  was  the  province  of  Moors,  Jews,  and  other  heretics  ;  of 
the  Marani  or  accursed,  miscreants  and  descendants  of 
miscreants  ;  of  the  Sanbeniti  or  infamous,  WTetches  whose 
ancestors  had  been  convicted  by  the  Holy  Inquisition  of 
listening,  however  secretly,  to  the  Holy  Scriptures  as  ex¬ 
pounded  by  other  lips  than  those  of  Roman  priests.  And 
it  is  a  remarkable  illustration  of  this  degradation  of  labour 
and  of  its  results,  that  in  the  reign  of  Philip  twenty-five 
thousand  individuals  of  these  dishonoured  and  comparatively 
industrious  classes,  then  computed  at  four  millions  in  number 
in  the  Castilian  kingdoms  alone,  had  united  in  a  society  which 
made  a  formal  offer  to  the  king  to  juay  him  two  thousand 
dollars  a  head  if  the  name  and  privileges  of  hidalgo  could  he 
conferred  upon  them.18  Thus  an  inconsiderable  number  of 
this  vilest  and  most  abject  of  the  population — oppressed  by 
taxation  which  was  levied  exclusively  upon  the  low,  and  from 
which  not  only  the  great  nobles  hut  mechanics  and  other 
hidalgos  were  exempt — had  been  able  to  earn  and  to  lay  by 
enough  to  offer  the  monarch  fifty  millions  of  dollars  to 
purchase  themselves  out  of  semi-slavery  into  manhood,  and 


17  La  gente  bassa  e  minuta  fa  numero 
ed  e  poverissimo  essendo  tutta  priva 
d’industria  e  di  questa  si  serve  quando 
bisogna  per  soldati.  E  poveri  ancora 
nel  loro  grado  cbiamar  si  possono  quelli 
che  sono  fra  li  principi  e  gli  artefici 


u  c  aiuunui  -mreiaam elite  opposte  all  Africa 

perche  vogliono  vivere  con  fasto,  sono^ove  entrarono  i  Mori  e  lontani 


superbi  assai  lianno  poclie  entrate  e 
non  le  governano  stimano  vergogna  il 
far  esercizio  die  possa  aver  apparenza 
di  mercanzia  onde  essendo  senza  iiidus- 
tria  e  senza  roba  e  volendo  spendere 
e  grandeggiare  la  fanno  male  assai 
perclie  sdegnano  li  minori  e  dalli  mag- 
giori  non  vogliono  esse  re  superati  perd 
si  vede  quasi  tutta  la  Spagna  assai 
mendica  e  piena  di  povera  gente  fuori 
cbe  dove  abita  la  Corte,  le  Metropoli 
dei  regni  dove  si  riducono  le  Signori  e 


si  esercitano  le  arti  ed  in  Siviglia  per 

il  commercio  dell’  Indie . ^Li 

Biscaylini  si  stimano  nobili  d’  inconta- 
minata  discendenza  sopra  tutti  il  po- 
P°li  di  Spagna  perclie  essendo  di  sito 
^direttamente  opposte  all’  Africa  di 

_  - -  da 

quelle  parti  delle  Spagna  dove  vivono 
li  Marani  die  sono  li  piu  in  Porto- 
gallo  professano  die  non  siano  entrati 
nel  loro  paese  mai  queste  infezioni  e 
ne  vanno  altieri  e  gloriosi  assai.  Li 
regni  di  Cfranata,  Valenza,  ed  Anda¬ 
lusia,  all’  incontro  sono  tutti  pieni  di 
Morescbi,  le  altre  parti  della  Spagna 
sono  contaminate  ed  infette  pur  di 
questi  Morescbi  e  de  Marani  ancora,” 
&c.  &c. — Soranzo. 

18  Soranzo. 


i 


524 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXV. 


yet  found  their  offer  rejected  by  an  almost  insolvent  king. 
Nothing  could  exceed  the  idleness  and  the  frivolity  of  the 
upper  classes,  as  depicted  by  contemporary  and  not  un- 
fiiendly  obseiveis.  Ihe  nobles  were  as  idle  and  as  ignorant  as 
their  inferiors.  They  were  not  given  to  tournays  nor  to  the 
•  delights  of  the  chase  and  table,  but  were  fond  of  brilliant 
festivities,  dancing,  gambling,  masquerading,  love-making, 
and  pompous  exhibitions  of  equipage,  furniture,  and  dress! 
These  diversions— together  with  the  baiting  of  bulls  and  the 
burning  of  Protestants— made  up  their  simple  round  of 
pleasures.  When  they  went  to  the  wars  they  scorned  all 
positions  but  that  of  general,  whether  by  land  or  sea,  and  as 
wai  is  a  trade  which  requires  an  apprenticeship,  it  is  un¬ 
necessary  to  observe  that  these  grandees  were  rarely  able 
to  command,  having-  never  learned  to  obey.  The  poorer 
Spaniards .  were  most  honourably  employed  perhaps — so 
fai  as  their  own  mental  development  was  concerned— when 
they,  were  sent  with  pike  and  arquebus  to  fight  heretics  in 
France  and  Flanders.  They  became  brave  and  indomitable 
soldiers  when  exported  to  the  seat  of  war,  and  thus  afforded 
pi  oof  by  strenuously  doing  the  hardest  physical  work  that 
human  beings  can  be  called  upon  to  perform,  campaigning 
year  after  year  amid  the  ineffable  deprivations,  dangers,  and 
sufferings  which  are  the  soldier’s  lot— that  it  was  from  no 
want,  of  industry  or  capacity  that  the  lower  masses  of 
Spaniards  in  that  age  were  the  idle,  listless,  dice-playing, 
begging,,  filching  vagabonds  into  which  cruel  history  and 
horrible  institutions  had  converted  them  at  home. 

It  is  only  necessary  to  recal  these  well-known  facts  to 
understand  why  one  great  dement  of  production — human 
labour— was  but  meagrely  supplied.  It  had  been  the  deli¬ 
berate  policy  of  the  Government  for  ages  to  extirpate  the 
industrious  classes,  and  now  that  a  great  portion  of  Moors 
and.  Jews  were  exiles  and  outcasts,  it  was  impossible  to  supply 
their  place  by  native  workmen.  Even  the  mechanics,  who 
condescended  to  work  with  their  hands  in  the  towns,  looked 
down  alike  upon  those  who  toiled  in  the  field  and  upon  those 


EFFECTS  OF  NATIONAL  SELF-ESTEEM. 


525 


who  attempted  to  grow  rich  by  traffic.  A  locksmith  or  a 
wheelwright  who  could  prove  four  descents  of  western  blood 
called  himself  a  son  of  somebody — a  hidalgo19 — and  despised 
the  farmer  and  the  merchant.  And  those  very  artisans  were 
careful  not  to  injure  themselves  by  excessive  industry,  although 
not  reluctant  by  exorbitant  prices  to  acquire  in  one  or  two 
days  what  might  seem  a  fair  remuneration  for  a  week,  and  to 
impress  upon  their  customers  that  it  was  rather  by  way  of 
favour  that  they  were  willing  to  serve  them  at  all. 

Labour  being  thus  deficient,  it  is  obvious  that  there  could 
hardly  have  been  a  great  accumulation,  according  to  modern 
ideas,  of  capital.  That  other  chief  element  of  national  wealth, 
which  is  the  result  of  generations  of  labour  and  of  abstinence^ 
was  accordingly  not  abundant.  And  even  those  accretions 
of  capital,  which  in  the  course  of  centuries  had  been  inevit¬ 
able,  were  as  clumsily  and  inadequately  diffused  as  the  most 
exquisite  human  perverseness  could  desire.  If  the  object  of 
civil  and  political  institutions  had  been  to  produce  the  greatest 
ill  to  the  greatest  number,  thatf  object  had  been  as  nearly 
attained  at  last  in  Spain  as  human  imperfection  permits  ;  the 
efforts  of  government  and  of  custom  coming  powerfully  to  the 
aid  of  the  historical  evils  already  indicated. 

It  is  superfluous  to  say  that  the  land  belonged  not  to  those 
who  lived  upon  it — but  subject  to  the  pre-eminent  right 
of  the  crown — to  a  small  selection  of  the  human  species. 
Moderate  holdings,  small  farms,  peasant  proprietorships,  were 
unknown.  Any  kind  of  terrestrial  possession,  in  short,  was 
as  far  beyond  the  reach  of  those  men  who  held  themselves 


19  “  Gli  Idalglii  sono  per  il  piu  gli 
artefici  die  godono  il  privilegio  di 
questo  titolo,  o  per  grazia  ottenuta  dal 
re  ....  ovvero  per  discendenza  e 
per  natura,  e  questi  sono  persone  nate 
di  buon  sangue  e  di  padri  benemeriti 
dalla  corona  die  s’  hanno  acquistato 
questo  titolo  con  alcuna  fazione  in 
servizio  del  Ee.  Di  questo  nome  d’ 
Idalgo  per  natura  non  possono  godare 
se  non  quelli,clie  nasconoperlo  meno 
in  quattro  gradi  di  padre  e  di  madre 
che  non  sieno  stati  ne  Moreschi  ne 


Marani  a  differenza  delli  Cristiani 
nuovi  die  non  hanno  questo  candor  di 
nascimento  descendendo  da  persone 

infette  da  questa  maccliia . Gli 

artefici  sono  comodi  e  vivono  tutti 
molto  lautamente  trattano  con  gran 
sprezzatura,  lavorano  poco  e  per  po- 
terlo  fare  si  fanno  pagare  le  fatture 
quello  die  non  si  pud  credere,  volendo, 
con  la  fatica  die  essi  possono  fare  in 
un  giorno  vivere  e  godere  tutta  una 
settimana.” — Soranzo. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXV. 


so  haughtily  and  esteemed  themselves  so  inordinately,  as 
were  the  mountains  in  the  moon. 

The  great  nobles— and  of  real  grandees  of  Spain  there  were 
but  forty-nine,20  although  the  number  of  titled  families  was 
much  larger— owned  all  the  country,  except  that  vast  portion 
of  it  which  had  reposed  for  ages  in  the  dead-hand  of  the 
Church.  The  law  of  primogeniture,  strictly  enforced,  tended 
with  every  generation  to  narrow  the  basis  of  society.  Nearly 
every  great  estate  was  an  entail,  passing  from  eldest  son  to 
eldest  son,  until  these  were  exhausted,  in  which  case  a 
daughter  transferred  the  family  possessions  to  a  new  house. 
Thus  the  capital  of  the  country — meagre  at  best  in  com¬ 
parison  with  what  it  might  have  been,  had  industry  been 
honoured  instead  of  being  despised,  had  the  most  intelligent 
and  most  diligent  classes  been  cherished  rather  than  hunted 
to  death  or  into  obscure  dens  like  vermin — was  concentrated 
in  very  few  hands.  Not  only  was  the  accumulation  less  than 
it  should  have  been,  but  the  slenderness  of  its  diffusion  had 
neaily  amounted  to  absolute  stagnation.  The  few  possessors 
of  capital  wasted  their  revenues  in  unproductive  consumption. 
The  millions  of  the  needy  never  dreamed  of  the  possibility 
of  deriving  benefit  from  the  capital  of  the  rich,  nor  would 
have  condescended  to  employ  it,  nor  known  how  to  employ 
it,  had  its  use  in  any  form  been  vouchsafed  to  them.  The 
surface  of  Spain,  save  only  around  the  few  royal  residences, 
exhibited  no  splendour  of  architecture,  whether  in  town  or 
country,  no  wonders  of  agricultural  or  horticultural  skill,  no 
monuments  of  engineering  and  constructive  genius  in  roads, 
bridges,  docks,  warehouses,  and  other  ornamental  and  useful 
fabrics,  or  in  any  of  the  thousand  ways  in  which  man  facilitates 
intercourse  among  his  kind  and  subdues  nature  to  his  will.21 


20  Soranzo. 

21  “  Le  citta  .  .  .  non  riescono 
ne  per  magnificenza  di  edificii  ne  per 
bellezza  di  strade,  ne  per  grandezza 
di  piazze  ne  per  esquisitezza  di  altri 
ornamenti  molto  conspicui  ne  troppo 

riguardevoli,”  &c.,  &c . “  non 

si  ha  in  Spagna  cognizione  d’  arclii- 
tettura,  percio  non  si  veggono  belle 


fabbriclie,  ne  per  le  terre  ne  per  le  ville, 
non  giardini^non  vigne,  non  altra  cosa 
di  delizia  ne  di  magnificenza  fuori 
che  nelle  fabbriche  reali :  non  s’in- 
tendono  di  fortificazioni  e  quelli  che 
non  la  vanno  a  imparare  fuori  di  la 
non  intendono '  la  disciplina  militare, 
percio  non  lianno  nel  paese  ne  inge- 
gneri  ne  buoni  capitani.’’ — Soranzo. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  HIERARCHY. 


527 


Yet  it  can  never  be  too  often  repeated  that  it  is  only 
the  Spaniard  of  the  sixteenth  century,  such  as  extraneous 
circumstances  had  made  him,  that  is  here  depicted  ;  that 
he,  even  like  his  posterity  and  his  ancestors,  had  been 
endowed  by  Nature  with  some  of  her  noblest  gifts.  Acute¬ 
ness  of  intellect,  wealth  of  imagination,  heroic  qualities  of 
heart,  and  hand,  and  brain,  rarely  surpassed  in  any  race,  and 
manifested  on  a  thousand  battle-fields,  and  in  the  triumphs  of 
a  magnificent  and  most  original  literature,  had  not  been  able 
to  save  a  whole  natioh  from  the  disasters  and  the  degradation 
which  the  mere  words  Philip  II.  and  the  Holy  Inquisition 
suggest  to  every  educated  mind. 

Nor  is  it  necessary  for  my  purpose  to  measure  exactly  the 
space  which  separated  Spain  from  the  other  leading  monar¬ 
chies  of  the  day.  That  the  standard  of  civilization  was  a 
vastly  higher  one  in  England,  Holland,  or  even  France — torn 
as  they  all  were  with  perpetual  civil  war — no  thinker  will 
probably  deny  ;  but  as  it  is  rather  my  purpose  at  this  moment 
to  exhibit  the  evils  which  may  spring  from  a  perfectly  bad 
monarchical  system,  as  administered  by  a  perfectly  bad  king, 
I  prefer  not  to  wander  at  present  from  the  country  which  was 
ruled  for  almost  half  a  century  by  Philip  II. 

Besides  the  concentration  of  a  great  part  of  the  capital  of 
the  country  in  a  very  small  number  of  titled  families,  still 
another  immense  portion  of  the  national  wealth  belonged,  as 
already  intimated,  to  the  Church. 

There  were  eleven  archbishops,  at  the  head  of  whom  stood 
the  Archbishop  of  Toledo,  with  the  enormous  annual  revenue 
of  three  hundred  thousand  dollars.  Next  to  him  came  the 
Archbishop  of  Seville,  with  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars  yearly,  while  the  income  of  the  others  varied  from 
fifty  thousand  to  twenty  thousand  dollars  respectively.22 

There  were  sixty-two  bishops,  with  annual  incomes  ranging 
from  fifty  thousand  to  six  thousand  dollars.  The  churches, 
also,  of  these  various  episcopates  were  as  richly  endowed  as 
the  great  hierarchs  themselves.23  But  without  fatiguing  the 

22  Soranzo. 


23  Ibid. 


528 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXV 


reader  with  minute  details,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  one- 
third  of  the  whole  annual  income  of  Spain  and  Portugal 
belonged  to  the  ecclesiastical  body.24  In  return  for  this 
enormous  proportion  of  the  earth’s  fruits,  thus  placed  by  the 
caprice  of  destiny  at  their  disposal,  these  holy  men  did  very 
little  work  in  the  world.  They  fed  their  flocks  neither 
with  bread  nor  with  spiritual  food.  They  taught  little, 
preached  little,  dispensed  little  in  charity.  Very  few  of 
the  swarming  millions  of  naked  and  hungry  throughout 
the  land  were  clothed  or  nourished  out*  of  these  prodigious 
revenues  of  the  Church.  The  constant  and  avowed  care  of 
those  prelates  was  to  increase  their  worldly  possessions,  to 
build  up  the  fortunes  of  their  respective  families,  to  grow 
richer  and  richer  at  .  the  expense  of  the  people  whom  for 
centuries  they  had  fleeced.  Of  gross  crime,  of  public  osten¬ 
tatious  immorality,  such  as  had  made  the  Koman  priesthood 
of  that  and  preceding  ages  loathsome  in  the  sight  of  man 
and  God,  the  Spanish  Church-dignitaries  were  innocent. 
Avarice,  greediness,  and  laziness  were  their  characteristics. 
It  is  almost  superfluous  to  say  that,  while  the  ecclesiastical 
princes  were  rolling  in  this  almost  fabulous  wealth,  the  sub¬ 
ordinate  clergy,  the  mob  of  working  priests,  were  needy, 
half-starved  mendicants.25 

F rom  this  rapid  survey  of  the  condition  of  the  peninsula  it 
will  seem  less  surprising  than  it  might  do  at  first  glance  that 
the  revenue  of  the  greatest  monarch  of  the  world  was  rated 


24  Soranzo. 

25  “  Non  si  esercitano  qnesti  Prelati 
per  lo  piu  nelle  opere  pie  come  dovreb- 
bero  non  sono  molto  elemosinarij  e 
non  attendono  a  fare  il  loro  ufficio  pas¬ 
torale  con  quelle  carita  die  sarebbe 
forse  lor  debito,  poco  insegnano  poco 
riprendono  poco  dispensano  e  poco  pas- 
cono  le  loro  pecore  ne  col  pane  ne  colla 
parola  attendono  all’  utilita  propria 
ed  arricliire  loro  stessi  ele  lor  famiglie, 
ed  accumulare  ed  a  far  bene  alle  lor 
case  di  quello  die  loro  avanza  delle 
ricliezze  del  re,  sebbene  per  dire  il  vero 
nel  resto  sono  per  lo  piu  di  buoni  cos- 
tumi  ne  si  sente  occasione  di  scandalo 


per  la  vita  che  menano  e  contentandosi 
del  solo  gusto  di  arricliire  nel  restante 
vivono  con  termine  di  grand’  esempio  : 
ed  in  somma  in  queste  entrate  ecclesi- 
asticlie  che  toccano  al  clero  che  par- 
lero  poi  di  quelle  che  sono  del  re  si 
fa  conto  che  sia  compreso  il  terzo  delle 
entrate  di  quoi  regni,  ma  oltre  li  pre¬ 
lati  e  li  Beneficieti  delle  lor  cliiese  il 
resto  del  clero  e  mendico  e  bisognoso.” 
— Soranzo. 

These  are  the  words,  not  of  a  de 
mocrat  or  Protestant,  but  of  a  devoted 
Papist  and  a  most  haughty  aristocrat 
— the  Venetian  ambassador. 


STATE  OF  SPAIN  UNDER  PHILIP’S  RULE. 


529 


at  the  small  amount — even  after  due  allowance  for  the  dif¬ 
ference  of  general  values  between  the  sixteenth  and  nineteenth 
centuries — of  sixteen  millions  of  dollars.  The  King  of  Spain 
was  powerful  and  redoubtable  at  home  and  abroad,  because 
accident  had  placed  the  control  of  a  variety  of  separate  realms 
in  his  single  hand.  At  the  same  time  Spain  was  poor  and 
weak,  because  she  had  lived  for  centuries  in  violation  of  the 
principles  on  which  the  wealth  and  strength  of  nations  depend. 
Moreover,  every  one  of  those  subject  and  violently  annexed 
nations  hated  Spain  with  undying  fervour,26  while  an  infernal 
policy — the  leading  characteristics  of  which  were  to  sow  dis¬ 
sensions  among  the  nobles,  to  confiscate  their  property  on  all 
convenient  occasions,  and  to  bestow  it  upon  Spaniards  and 
other  foreigners  ;  to  keep  the  discontented  masses  in  poverty, 
hut  to  deprive  them  of  the  power  or  disposition  to  unite  with 
their  superiors  in  rank  in  demonstrations  against  the  crown — 
had  sufficed  to  suppress  any  extensive  revolt  in  the  various 
Italian  states  united  under  Philip's  sceptre.  Still  more  in¬ 
tense  than  the  hatred  of  the  Italians  was  the  animosity  which 
was  glowing  in  every  Portuguese  breast  against  the  Spanish 
sway  ;  while  even  the  Arragonese  were  only  held  in  subjec¬ 
tion  by  terror,  which,  indeed,  in  one  form  or  another,  was  the 
leading  instrument  of  Philip's  government. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  enlarge  upon  the  regulations  of 
Spain's  foreign  commerce ;  for  it  wifi  be  enough  to  repeat 
the  phrase  that  in  her  eyes  the  great  ocean  from  east  to  west 
was  a  Spanish  lake,  sacred  to  the  ships  of  the  king's  subjects 
alone.  With  such  a  simple  code  of  navigation  coming  in  aid 
of  the  other  causes  which  impoverished  the  land,  it  may  be 
believed  that  the  maritime  traffic  of  the  country  would 
dwindle  into  the  same  exiguous  proportions  which  charac¬ 
terised  her  general  industry. 

Moreover,  it  should  never  be  forgotten  that,  although  the 
various  kingdoms  of  Spain  were  politically  conjoined  by  their 


26  This  dominion  of  the  barbarians 
stinks  in  every  one’s  nostrils :  “  A 
ogn  uno  puzzaquesto  barbaro  dominio,” 
was  the  energetic  expression  of  Mac- 


chiavelli,  even  before  Philip  was  born, 
and  certainly  the  tyranny  did  not 
grow  sweeter  during  bis  reign. 


VOL  III.— 2  M 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXV. 


530 


personal  union  under  one  despot,  they  were  commercially  dis¬ 
tinct.  A  line  of  custom-houses  separated  each  province  from 
the  rest,  and  made  the  various  inhabitants  of  the  peninsula 
practically  strangers  to  each  other.  Thus  there  was  less 
traffic  between  Castile,  Biscay,  and  Arragon  than  there  was 
between  any  one  of  them  and  remote  foreign  nations.  The 
Biscayans,  for  example,  could  even  import  and  export  com¬ 
modities  to  and  from  remote  countries  by  sea,  free  of  duty, 
while  their  merchandize  to  and  from  Castile  was  crushed  by 
imposts.  As  this  ingenious  perversity  of  positive  arrange¬ 
ments  came  to  increase  the  negative  inconveniences  caused 
by  the  almost  total  absence  of  tolerable  roads,  canals,  bridges, 
and  other  means  of  intercommunication,  it  may  be  imagined 
that  internal  traffic — the  very  life-blood  of  every  prosperous 
nation — was  very  nearly  stagnant  in  Spain.  As  an  inevitable 
result,  the  most  thriving  branch  of  national  industry  was 
that  of  the  professional  smuggler,  who,  in  the  pursuit  of  his 
vocation,  did  his  best  to  aid  Government  in  sapping  the 
wealth  of  the  nation.27 

The  whole  accumulated  capital  of  Spain,  together  with  the 
land — in  the  general  sense  which  includes  not  only*  the  soil 
but  the  immovable  property  of  a  country — being  thus  exclu¬ 
sively  owned  by  the  crown,  the  church,  and  a  very  small 
number  of  patrician  families,  while  the  supply  of  labour — 
owing  to  the  special  causes  which  had  converted  the  masses 
of  the  people  into  paupers  ashamed  to  work  but  not  unwilling 
to  beg  or  to  rob — was  incredibly  small,  it  is  obvious  that,  so 
long  as  the  same  causes  continued  in  operation,  the  downfall 
of  the  country  was  a  logical  result  from  which  there  was  no 
escape.  Nothing  but  a  general  revolution  of  mind  and  hand 
against  the  prevalent  system,  nothing  but  some  great 
destructive  but  regenerating  catastrophe,  could  redeem  the 
people. 

And  it  is  the  condition  of  the  people  which  ought  always 
to  be  the  prominent  subject  of  interest  to  those  who  study  the 
records  of  the  Past.  It  is  only  by  such  study  that  we  can 
27  See  Lafuente,  Hist.  Gen.  de  Espana,  t.  xv  p.  148. 


CONDITION  OF  THE  PEOPLE.  53I 

•  -  - 

derive  instruction  fiom  history,  and  enable  ourselves,  however 
dimly  and  feebly,  to  cast  the  horoscope  of  younger  nations. 
Human  history,  so  far  as  it  has  been  written,  is  at  best  a  mere 
fragment ;  for  the  few  centuries  or  year-thousands  of  which 
theie  is  definite  record  are  as  nothing  compared  to  the 
millions  of  unnumbered  years  during  which  man  has  perhaps 
walked  the  earth.  It  may  be  as  practicable  therefore  to 
deiive.  instruction  from  a  minute  examination  in  detail  of  a 
very  limited  period  of  time  and  space,  and  thus  to  deduce 
geneial  rules  for  the  infinite  future,  during  which  our  species 
may  be  destined  to  inhabit  this  planet,  as  by  a  more  extensive 
survey,  which  must  however  be  at  best  a  limited  one.  Men 
die,  but  Man  is  immortal,  and  it  would  be  a  sufficiently 
forlorn  prospect  for  humanity  if  we  were  not  able  to  discover 
causes  in  operation  which  would  ultimately  render  the 
system  of  Philip  II.  impossible  in  any  part  of  the  globe. 
Certainly,  were  it  otherwise,  the  study  of  human  history 
would  be  the  most  wearisome  and  unprofitable  of  all  con¬ 
ceivable  occupations.  The  festivities  of  courts,  the  magni¬ 
ficence  of  an  aristocracy,  the  sayings  and  doings  of  monarchs 
and  their  servants,  the  dynastic  wars,  the  solemn  treaties,  the 
Ossa  upon  Pelion  of  diplomatic  and  legislative  rubbish  by 
which,  in  the  course  of  centuries,  a  few  individuals  or  com¬ 
binations  of  individuals  have  been  able  to  obstruct  the  march 
of  humanity,  and  have  essayed  to  suspend  the  operation  of 
elemental  laws— all  this  contains  but  little  solid  food  for 
grown  human  beings.  The  condition  of  the  brave  and  quick¬ 
witted  Spanish  people  in  the  latter  half  of  'the  sixteenth 

century  gives  more  matter  for  reflection  and  possible  in¬ 
struction. 

I  hat  science  is  the  hope  of  the  world,  that  ignorance  is 
the  real  enslaver  of  mankind,  and  therefore  the  natural  ally 
of  every  form  of  despotism,  may  be  assumed  as  an  axiom, 
and  it  was  certainly  the  ignorance  and  superstition  of  the 
people  upon  which  the  Philippian  policy  was  founded. 

A  vast  mass,  entirely  uneducated,  half  fed,  half  clothed 
unemployed,  and  reposing  upon  a  still  lower  and  denser 


532  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXV. 

stratum — the  millions  namely  of  the  “  Accursed/'  of  the 
Africans,  and  last  and  vilest  of  all,  the  “  blessed  ”  descendants 
of  Spanish  protestants  whom  the  Holy  Office  had  branded 
with  perpetual  infamy'28  because  it  had  burned  their  pro¬ 
genitors — this  was  the  People  j  and  it  was  these  paupers  and 
outcasts,  nearly  the  whole  nation,  that  paid  all  the  imposts 
of  which  the  public  revenue  was  composed.  The  great  nobles, 
priests,  and  even  the  hidalgos,  were  exempt  from  taxation.29 
Need  more  be  said  to  indicate  the  inevitable  ruin  of  both 
government  and  people  P 

And  it  was  over  such  a  people,  and  with  institutions  like 
these,  that  Philip  II.  was  permitted  to  rule  during  forty- 
three  years.  His  power  was  absolute.20  With  this  single 
phrase  one  might  as  well  dismiss  any  attempt  at  speci¬ 
fication.  He  made  war  or  peace  at  will  with  foreign  nations. 
He  had  power  of  life  and  death  over  all  his  subjects.  He  had 
unlimited  control  of  their  worldly  goods.  As  he  claimed 
supreme  jurisdiction  over  their  religious  opinions  also,  he  was 
master  of  their  minds,  bodies,  and  estates.  As  a  matter  of 
course,  he  nominated  and  removed  at  will  every  executive 
functionary,  every  judge,  every  magistrate,  every  military  or 
civil  officer  ;  and  moreover,  he  not  only  selected,  according  to 
the  license  tacitly  conceded  to  him  by  the  pontiff,  every 
archbishop,  bishop,  and  other  Church  dignitary,  but,  through 
his  great  influence  at  Rome,  he  named  most  of  the  cardinals, 
and  thus  controlled  the  election  of  the  popes.  The  whole 
machinery  of  society,  political,  ecclesiastical,  military,  was  in 
his  single  hand.  There  was  a  show  of  provincial  privilege 
here  and  there  in  different  parts  of  Spain,  but  it  was  but  the 
phantom  of  that  ancient  municipal  liberty  which  it  had  been 
the  especial  care  of  his  father  and  his  great-grandfather  to 


28  “  Segnati  e  notati  di  perpetua  in- 
famia — vivono  quindi  disperati  ed 
arrabbiatissimi.”  29  Soranzo. 

30  “  Ha  assoluto  imperio  sopra  le  vite 
e  facolta  delli  sudditi,  e  libero  padron 
della  pace  e  della  guerra,  ha  piena 
potesta  sopra  le  leggi,  sopra  la  gius- 
tizia  e  sopra  le  grazie,  ha  la  nomina- 


zione  di  tutti  i  beneficii  eccleslastici, 
delle  tre  ordini  di  cavalleria  .... 
crea  li  President!  li  Vice-re,  li  Luogo- 
tenenti,  Grovernatori,  Capitani,  i  gene- 
rali  degli  eserciti  e  delle  armate,  e  per 
la  grande  autorita  che  tiene  con  i 
Pontefici  si  pud  dire  che  faccia  ancora 
i  Cardinali.” — Soranzo. 


POWER  OF  PHILIP  ABSOLUTE. 


533 


destroy.  Most  patiently  did  Philip,  by  his  steady  inactivity, 
biing  about  the  decay  of  the  last  ruins  of  free  institutions  in 
the  peninsula.  The  councils  and  legislative  assemblies  were  * 
convoked  and  then  wearied  out  in  waiting  for  that  royal 
assent  to  their  propositions  and  transactions,  which  was  de¬ 
ferred  intentionally,  year  after  year,  and  never  given.  Thus 
the  time  of  the  deputies  was  consumed  in  accomplishing 
infinite  nothing,  until  the  moment  arrived  when  the  monarch, 
without  any  violent  stroke  of  state,  could  feel  safe  in  issuing 
decrees  and  pragmatic  edicts;  thus  reducing  the  ancient 
legislative  and  consultative  bodies  to  nullity,  and  substituting 
the  will  of  an  individual  for  a  constitutional  fabric.31  To 
criticise  the  expenses  of  government  or  to  attempt  inter¬ 
ference  with  the  increase  of  taxation  became  a  sorry  farce. 
The  forms  remained  in  certain  provinces  after  the  life  had 
long  since  fled.  Only  in  Arragon  had  the  ancient  privileges 
seemed  to  defy  the  absolute  authority  of  the  monarch  ;  and  it 
was  reserved  for  Antonio  Perez  to  be  the  cause  of  their  final 
extirpation.  The  grinning  skulls  of  the  Chief  Justice  of  that 
kingdom  and  of  the  boldest  and  noblest  advocates  and  de¬ 
fenders  of  the  national  liberties,  exposed  for  years  in  the 
market-place,  with  the  record  of  their  death-sentence  attached, 
informed  the  Spaniards,  in  language  which  the  most  ignorant 
could  read,  that  the  crime  of  defending  a  remnant  of  human 
fieedom  and  constitutional  law  was  sure  to  drawdown  condign 
punishment.32  It  was  the  last  time  in  that  age  that  even  the 
ghost  of  extinct  liberty  was  destined  to  revisit  the  soil  of 
Spain.  It  mattered  not  that  the  immediate  cause  for  pur¬ 
suing  Perez  was  his  successful  amour  with  the  kingJs  mis¬ 
tress,  nor  that  the  crime  of  which  he  was  formally  accused 
was  the  deadly  offence  of  Calvinism,  rather  than  his  intrigue  * 


31  Lafuente,xv.  151. 

32  “  E  sebbene  questa  loro  preroga- 
tiva  e  queste  lore  licenze  furono  in 
gran  parte  levate  e  per  il  resto  assai 
mortificati  dal  re  passato  troncando 
molte  teste  dei  principali  e  facendole 
anco  poner  in  publica  mostra  con  le 
iscrizioni  appresso  dei  loro  delitti  a 
perpetuo  terrore  deiposteri,  estirpando 


li  capi,  piantondo  cittadelle,  introdu- 
cendo  guardie  e  aggrandendo  V  auto- 
rita  all’  Ufficio  della  Inqnisizione  che 
fu  uno  dei  maggiori  morsi  per  domarli 
con  che  si  potesse  frenare  la  loro  fero- 
cia,”  &C.&G. — Soranzo,  Reiazione,1597- 
1602.  Barozzi  and  Berchet.  Rela- 
zioni,  &c.,  Ser.  i.  vol.  i. 


534 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXV. 


with  the  Eboli  and  his  assassination  of  Escovedo  ;  for  it  was 
in  the  natural  and  simple  sequence  of  events  that  the  last 
vestige  of  law  or  freedom  should  he  obliterated  wherever 
Philip  could  vindicate  his  sway.  It  must  be  admitted,  too, 
that  the  king  seized  this  occasion  to  strike  a  decisive  blow 
with  a  promptness  very  different  from  his  usual  artistic 
sluggishness.  Rarely  has  a  more  terrible  epigram  been 
spoken  by  man  than  the  royal  words  which  constituted  the 
whole  trial  and  sentence  of  the  Chief  Justice  of  Arragon, 
for  the  crime  of  defending  the  law  of  his  country  :  “  You  will 
take  John  of  Lanuza,  and  you  will  have  his  head  cut  off.” 
This  was  the  end  of  the  magistrate  and  of  the  constitution 
which  he  had  defended.33 

His  power  was  unlimited.  A  man  endowed  with  genius 
and  virtue,  and  possessing  the  advantages  of  a  consummate 
education,  could  have  perhaps  done  little  more  than  attempt 
to  mitigate  the  general  misery,  and  to  remove  some  of  its 
causes.  For  it  is  one  of  the  most  pernicious  dogmas  of  the 
despotic  system,  and  the  one  which  the  candid  student  of 
history  soonest  discovers  to  be  false,  that  the  masses  of  man¬ 
kind  are  to  look  to  any  individual,  however  exalted  by  birth 
or  intellect,  for  their  redemption.  Woe  to  the  world  if  the 
nations  are  never  to  learn  that  their  fate  is  and  ought  to  be 
in  their  own  hands  ;  that  their  institutions,  whether  liberal  or 
despotic,  are  the  result  of  the  national  biography  and  of  the 
national  character,  not  the  work  of  a  few  individuals  whose 
names  have  been  preserved  by  capricious  Accident  as  heroes 
and  legislators.  Yet  there  is  no  doubt  that,  while  compara¬ 
tively  powerless  for  good,  the  individual  despot  is  capable  of 
almost  infinite  mischief.  There  have  been  few  men  known  to 
history  who  have  been  able  to  accomplish  by  their  own  exer¬ 
tions  so  vast  an  amount  of  evil  as  the  king  who  had  just  died. 
If  Philip  possessed  a  single  virtue  it  has  eluded  the  conscien¬ 
tious  research  of  the  writer  of  these  pages.  If  there  are 
vices — as  possibly  there  are — from  which  he  was  exempt,  it  is 

33  «  Prendereis  a  don  Juan  de  Lannza  y  liareisle  lnego  cortar  la  cabeza. 
See  Lafuente,  xv.  131, 132. 


POWER  OF  PHILIP  ABSOLUTE  AND  UNLIMITED.  53 5 

because  it  is  not  permitted  to  human  nature  to  attain  per¬ 
fection  even  in  evil.  The  only  plausible  explanation — for 
palliation  there  is  none — of  his  infamous  career  is  that  the 
man  really  believed  himself  not  a  king  but  a  god.  He  was 
placed  so  high  above  his  fellow-creatures  as,  in  good  faith 
perhaps,  to  believe  himself  incapable  of  doing  wrong  •  so  that, 
whether  indulging  his  passions  or  enforcing  throughout  the 
world  his  religious  and  political  dogmas,  he  was  ever  con¬ 
scious  of  embodying  divine  inspirations  and  elemental  laws. 
When  providing  for  the  assassination  of  a  monarch,  or  com¬ 
manding  the  massacre  of  a  townful  of  Protestants  ;  when 
trampling  on  every  oath  by  which  a  human  being  can  bind 
himself ,  when  laying  desolate  with  fire  and  sword,  during 
more  than  a  generation,  the  provinces  which  he  had  inherited 
as  his  private  property,  or  in  carefully  maintaining  the  flames 
of  civil  war  in  foreign  kingdoms  which  he  hoped  to  acquire  • 
while  maintaining  over  all  Christendom  a  gigantic  system  of 
biibery,  corruption,  and  espionage,  keeping  the  noblest  names 
of  England  and  Scotland  on  his  pension-lists  of  traitors,  and 
impoverishing  his  exchequer  with  the  wages  of  iniquity  paid 
m  France  to  men  of  all  degrees,  from  princes  of  blood  like 
Gruise  and  Mayenne  down  to  the  obscurest  of  country  squires, 
he  ever  felt  that  these  base  or  bloody  deeds  were  not  crimes, 
but  the  simple  will  of  the  godhead  of  which  he  was  a  por¬ 
tion.  He  never  doubted  that  the  extraordinary  theological 
sj  stem  which  he  spent  his  life  in  enforcing  with  fire  and 
sword  was  right,  for  it  was  a  part  of  himself.  The  Holy 
Inquisition,  thoroughly  established  as  it  was  in  his  ancestral 
Spain,  was  a  portion  of  the  regular  working  machinery  by 
which  his  absolute  kingship  and  his  superhuman  will  ex¬ 
pressed  themselves.  A  tribunal  which  performed  its  func¬ 
tions  with  a  celerity,  certainty,  and  invisibility  resembling 
the  attributes  *of  Omnipotence ;  which,  like  the  pestilence, 
entered  palace  or  hovel  at  will,  and  which  smote  the  wretch 
guilty  01  suspected  of  heresy  with  a  precision  against  which 
no  human  ingenuity  or  sympathy  could  guard— such  an  insti¬ 
tution  could  not  but  be  dear  to  his  heart.  It  was  inevitable 


536 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXV. 


that  the  extension  and  perpetuation  of  what  he  deemed  its 
blessings  throughout  his  dominions  should  be  his  settled  pur¬ 
pose.  Spain  was  governed  by  an  established  terrorism.  It  is 
a  mistake  to  suppose  that  Philip  was  essentially  beloved  in 
his  native  land,  or  that  his  religious  and  political  system  was 
heartily  accepted  because  consonant  to  the  national  cha¬ 
racter.  On  the  contrary,  as  has  been  shown,  a  very  large 
proportion  of  the  inhabitants  were  either  secretly  false  to  the 
Catholic  faith,  or  descended  at  least  from  those  who  had 
expiated  their  hostility  to  it  with  their  lives.  But  the  Grand 
Inquisitor  was  almost  as  awful  a  personage  as  the  king  or  the 
pope.  His  familiars  were  in  every  village  and  at  every  fire¬ 
side,  and  from  their  fangs  there  was  no  escape.  Millions  of 
Spaniards  would  have  rebelled  against  the  crown  or  accepted 
the  reformed  religion,  had  they  not  been  perfectly  certain  of 
being  burned  or  hanged  at  the  slightest  movement  in  such  a 
direction.34  The  popular  force  in  the  course  of  the  political 
combinations  of  centuries  seemed  at  last  to  have  been  elimi¬ 
nated.  The  nobles,  exempt  from  taxation,  which  crushed  the 
people  to  the  earth,  were  the  enemies  rather  than  the  chief- 


34  “  Pero  cosi  questi  come  li  Marani 
e  li  Moreschi  tratti  da  qnella  dispera- 
zione  clie  suole  anco  negli  animi  vili 
ed  abbietti  eccitare  spiriti  di  furore  e 
d’  ardire  sariano  inclinati  ad  ogni  sol- 
levazione  e  ribellione  sempre  clie  loro 
se  ne  presentasse  opportuna  occasione : 
ma  tanto  gli  uni  come  gli  altri  conven- 
gono  stare  quieti  per  le  ragione  cbe  bo 
detto  e  di  piu  perche  avendo  il  re  tutti 
i  grandi  e  tutto  il  clero  clT  e  podero- 
sissimo  in  tutto  affettodipendente  dalla 
Maesta  Sua  e  col  severissimo  rigore 
della  giustizia  e  dell’  officio  della  In- 
quisizione  cbe  e  come  diro  a  suo  luogo 
ditremenaaautoritain  tuttala  Spagna, 
lasciando  spuntare  cosa  per  piccola 
che  sia  e  tiene  i  popoli  non  solo  a 
freno  ma  in  perpetuo  terrore  privi  di 
poter  per  alcuna  via  maccbinare  o  ten- 
tare  novita  di  alcuna  sorte.”  .... 
“  Per  non  lasciar  infettar  il  paese 
di  questo  diabolico  morbo  d’eresie,  con 
tutto  cbe  il  pericolo  sia  stato  sempre  e 
sia  tuttavia  grandissimo  per  la  vicinita 
della  Francia,  per  la  diversity  dei 
popoli  della  Spagna,  perciocclie  li  Mo- 


rescbi  e  li  Marani  abbracciarieno  pron- 
tamente  ogni  occasione  cbe  lor  si 
presentasse  di  sollevazione,  apririano 
volentieri  1’  adito  e  si  fariano  facil- 
mente  compagni  a  cbi  volesse  tentar 
commozione  in  quei  regni  per  qualun- 
que  cagione  si  volesse,  e  quella  della 

religione  sarebbe  la  piu  facile . 

La  facilita  cbe  tengono  li  Spaguaoli 
nel  credere  cio  cbe  loro  viene  affermato, 
cbe  nasce  da  ignoranza  aprirebbe  la 
strada  a  cbi  volesse  seminarvi  nuove 

opinioni  molto  facile . La 

gran  quantita  di  beni  ecclesiastici,  cbe 
vi  sono  alletteria  molti  cbe  avessero 
pensiero  d’  introdurvi  novita  e  sedi- 
zioni  a  spessassarne  la  Cliiesa  per  im- 
padronirsene  ....  in  somma  si  pud 
dire  cbe  il  rigore  co^i  grande  di  questo 
officio  (Inquisizione)  mantiene  il  rito 
della  vera  religione  in  Spagna  cbe 
senza  questo  sipudgrandementetemere 
che  per  tanti  Moreschi  e  Marani  cbe 
sono  spar  si  per  il  paese  si  vedriano 
per  questo  rispetto  di  religione  dei 
movimenti  e  delle  commozioni  im¬ 
portant]. ” 


SPANISH  GOVERNMENT  A  TERRORISM. 


537 


tains  and  champions  of  the  lower  classes  in  any  possible 
struggle  with  a  crown  to  which  they  were  united  by  ties  of 
interest  as  well  as  of  affection,  while  the  great  churchmen, 
too,  were  the  immediate  dependants  and  of  course  the  firm 
supporters  of  the  king.  Thus  the  people,  without  natural 
leaders,  without  organisation,  and  themselves  divided  into 
two  mutually  hostile  sections,  were  opposed  by  every  force  in 
the  State.  Crown,  nobility,  and  clergy ;  all  the  wealth  and 
all  that  there  was  of  learning,  were  banded  together  to  sup¬ 
press  the  democratic  principle.30  But  even  this  would  hardly 
have  sufficed  to  extinguish  every  spark  of  liberty,  had  it  not 
been  for  the  potent  machinery  of  the  Inquisition  ;  nor  could 
that  perfection  of  terrorism  have  become  an  established  insti¬ 
tution  but  for  the  extraordinary  mixture  of  pride  and  super¬ 
stition  of  which  the  national  character  had  been,  in  the  course 
of  the  national  history,  compounded.  The  Spanish  portion 
of  the  people  hated  the  nobles,  whose  petty  exactions  and 
oppressions  were  always  visible  ;  but  they  had  a  reverential 
fear  of  the  unseen  monarch,  as  the  representative  both  of  the 
great  unsullied  Christian  nation  to  which  the  meanest  indi¬ 
vidual  was  proud  to  belong,  and  of  the  God  of  wrath  who 
had  decreed  the  extermination  of  all  unbelievers.  The 
“  accursed"  portion  of  the  people  were  sufficiently  disloyal  at 
heart,  but  were  too  much  crushed  by  oppression  and  con¬ 
tempt  to  imagine  themselves  men.  As  to  the  Netherlander, 
they  did  not  fight  originally  for  independence.  It  was  not 


35  “Perciocclie  de’  principi  non  pm 
temere  che  non  lianno  alcuna  autorita 
con  li  popoli  non  fortezze  per  ritirarsi, 
non  seguito  non  obbedienza  de’  loro 
vassalli,  non  buona  intelligenza  fra 
loro,  non  stimati  dalla  plebe,  odiati 
dai  proprii  sudditi,  che  sono  tiranneg- 
giati  da  loro,  in  mal  concetto  della 
gente  minuta  per  la  durezza  die  usano 
nei  pagamenti,  oltre  che  questi  fanno 
una  particolar  professione  di  sosten- 
tare  con  la  loro  fedelta  la  grandezza 
della  corona  e  stimano  questa  esser 
propria  e  particolar  gloria  della  na- 
zione  Spagnuola  e  di  loro  medesimi 
sopra  tutti  ;  perciocclie  quell  ’  alte- 


rezza  d’  animo  che  fa  si  che  sdegna- 
rebbero  d’  esser  soggetti  ad  altro  prin- 
cipe  che  al  re  di  Spagna  opera  in  modo 
clie  umiliandoli  a  questo,  reputano  che 
sia  lor  grandezza  sostenendo  quella 
corona  viver  soggetti  al  "maggior  re 
del  mondo  e  che  altri  che  un  principe 
tale  non  sia  degno  di  dominarli.  Li 
popoli  poi  non  lianno  ne  capi  ne  modo 
di  far  machinazione  non  tengono  ap- 
poggio  di  principi  forestieri  non  vi  e 
persona  che  con  giusta  pretensione 
potesse  eccitar  gli  altri,  no  v’  essendo 
alcuno  di  sangue  regio  cho  potesse 
ragionevolmente  pretendere.  ”  —  So- 
ranzo. 


538 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXV. 


until  after  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  fighting  that  they  ever 
thought  of  renouncing  their  allegiance  to  Philip.  They 
fought  to  protect  themselves  against  being  taxed  by  the  king 
without  the  consent  of  those  constitutional  assemblies  which 
he  had  sworn  to  maintain,  and  to  save  themselves  and  their 
children  from  being  burned  alive  if  they  dared  to  read  the 
Bible.  Independence  followed  after  nearly  a  half-century 
of  fighting,  but  it  would  never  have  been  obtained,  or  per¬ 
haps  demanded,  had  those  grievances  of  the  people  been 
redressed. 

Of  this  perfect  despotism  Philip  was  thus  the  sole  adminis- 
frator.  Certainly  he  looked  upon  his  mission  with  seriousness, 
and  was  industrious  in  performing  his  royal  functions.  But  this 
earnestness  and  seriousness  were,  in  truth,  his  darkest  vices ; 
for  the  most  frivolous  voluptuary  that  ever  wore  a  crown 
would  never  have  compassed  a  thousandth  part  of  the  evil 
which  was  Philip’s  life-work.  It  was  because  he  was  a 
believer  in  himself,  and  in  what  he  called  his  religion,  that 
he  was  enabled  to  perpetrate  such  a  long  catalogue  of  crimes. 
When  an  humble  malefactor  is  brought  before  an  ordinary 
court  of  justice,  it  is  not  often,  in  any  age  or  country,  that  he 
escapes  the  pillory  or  the  gallows  because,  from  his  own 
point  of  view,  his  actions,  instead  of  being  criminal,  have 
been  commendable,  and  because  the  multitude  and  continuity 
of  his  offences  prove  him  to  have  been  sincere.  And  because 
anointed  monarchs  are  amenable  to  no  human  tribunal,  save 
to  that  terrible  assize  which  the  People,  bursting  its  chain 
from  time  to  time  in  the  course  of  the  ages,  sets  up  for  the 
trial  of  its  oppressors,  and  which  is  called  Revolution,  it  is 
the  more  important  for  the  great  interests  of  humanity  that 
before  the  judgment-seat  of  History  a  crown  should  be  no 
protection  to  its  wearer.  There  is  no  plea  to  the  jurisdiction 
of  history,  if  history  be  true  to  itself. 

As  for  the  royal  criminal  called  Philip  II.,  his  life  is  his 
anaignment,  and  these  volumes  will  have  been  written  in 
vain  if  a  specification  is  now  required. 

Homicide  such  as  was  hardly  ever  compassed  before  by 


PHILIP  A  MURDERER  AND  EXTORTIONER. 


539 


one  human  being  was  committed  by  Philip  when  in  the 
famous  edict  of  1568  he  sentenced  every  man,  woman,  and 
child  in  the  Netherlands  to  death.  That  the  whole  of  this 
population,  three  millions  or  more,  were  not  positively  de¬ 
stroyed  was  because  no  human  energy  could  suffice  to  execute 
the  diabolical  decree.  But  Alva,  toiling  hard,  accomplished 
much  of  this  murderous  work.  By  the  aid  of  the  “  Council 
of  Blood/'  and  of  the  sheriffs  and  executioners  of  the  Holy 
Inquisition,  he  was  able  sometimes  to  put  eight  hundred 
human  beings  to  death  in  a  single  week  for  the  crimes  of 
Protestantism  or  of  opulence,  and  at  the  end  of  half  a  dozen 
years  he  could  boast  of  having  strangled,  drowned,  burned, 
or  beheaded  somewhat  more  than  eighteen  thousand  of  his 
fellow-creatures.  These  were  some  of  the  non-combatant 
victims  ;  for  of  the  tens  of  thousands  who  perished  during  his 
administration  alone,  in  siege  and  battle,  no  statistical  record 
has  been  preserved. 

In  face  of  such  wholesale  crimes,  of  these  forty  years  of 
bloodshed,  it  is  superfluous  to  refer  to  such  isolated  misdeeds 
as  his  repeated  attempts  to  procure  the  assassination  of  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  crowned  at  last  by  the  success  of  Balthazar 
Gerard,  nor  to  his  persistent  efforts  to  poison  the  Queen  of 
England  ;  for  the  enunciation  of  all  these  murders  or  at¬ 
tempts  at  murder  would  require  a  repetition  of  the  story 
which  it  has  been  one  of  the  main  purposes  of  these  volumes 
to  recite. 

For  indeed  it  seems  like  mere  railing  to  specify  his  crimes. 
Their  very  magnitude  and  unbroken  continuity,  together  with 
their  impunity,  give  them  almost  the  appearance  of  inevitable 
phenomena.  The  horrible  monotony  of  his  career  stupefies 
the  mind  until  it  is  ready  to  accept  the  principle  of  evil  as 
the  fundamental  law  of  the  world. 

His  robberies,  like  his  murders,  were  colossal.  The  vast 
system  of  confiscation  set  up  in  the  Netherlands  was  suffi¬ 
cient  to  reduce  unnumbered  innocent  families  to  beggary, 
although  powerless  to  break  the  spirit  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty  or  to  pay  the  expenses  of  subjugating  a  people.  Not 


540 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXV. 


often  in  the  world’s  history  have  so  many  thousand  individuals 
been  plundered  by  a  foreign  tyrant  for  no  crime,  save  that 
they  were  rich  enough  to  be  worth  robbing.  For  it  can  never 
be  too  often  repeated  that  thosfc  confiscations  and  extor¬ 
tions  were  peipetrated  upon  Catholics  as  well  as  Protestants, 
monai  chists  as  well  as  rebels  ;  the  possession  of  property 
making  proof  of  orthodoxy  or  of  loyalty  well-nigh  impossible. 

Falsehood  was  the  great  basis  of  the  king’s  character 
which  perhaps  derives  its  chief  importance,  as  a  political  and 
psychological  study,  from  this  very  fact.  It  has  been  shown 
throughout  the  whole  course  of  this  history,  by  the  evidence 
of  his  most  secret  correspondence,  that  he  was  false,  most  of 
all,  to  those  to  whom  he  gave  what  he  called  his  heart. 
Granvelle,  Alva,  Don  John,  Alexander  Farnese,  all  those,  in 
short,  who  were  deepest  in  his  confidence  experienced  in  succes¬ 
sion  his  entire  perfidy,  while  each  in  turn  was  sacrificed  to  his 
master’s  sleepless  suspicion.  The  pope  himself  was  often  as 
much  the  dupe  of  the  Catholic  monarch’s  faithlessness  as  the 
vilest  heretic  had  ever  been.  Could  the  great  schoolmaster 
of  iniquity  for  the  sovereigns  and  politicians  of  the  south 
have  lived  to  witness  the  practice  of  the  monarch  who  had 
most  laid  to  heart  the  precepts  of  the  “  Prince,”  he  would 
have  felt  that  he  had  not  written  in  vain,  and  that  his  great 
paragon  of  successful  falsehood,  Ferdinand  of  Arragon,  had 
been  surpassed  by  the  great  grandson.  For  the  ideal  per¬ 
fection  of  perfidy,  foreshadowed  by  the  philosopher  who  died 
in  the  year  of  Philip’s  birth,  was  thoroughly  embodied  at  last 
by  this  potentate.  Certainly  Nicholas  Macchiavelli  could 
have  hoped  for  no  more  docile  pupil.  That  all  men  are  vile, 
that  they  are  liars,  scoundrels,  poltroons,  and  idiots  alike— 
ever  ready  to  deceive  and  yet  easily  to  be  duped,  and  that 
he  only  is  fit  to  be  king  who  excels  his  kind  in  the  arts  of 
deception;36  by  this  great  maxim  of  the  Florentine,  Philip 


36  “  Perche  degli  uomini  si  pud  dir 
questo  generalmente  clie  sieno  ingrati, 
volubili,  simulatori,  fuggitori  de’  peri- 
coli,  cupidi  di  guadagno  :  e  mentre 
lai  lor  bene  sono  tutti  tuoi,  ti  offeris- 


cono  il  sangue,  la  roba,  la  vita,  ed  i 
figli  come  di  sopra  dissi,  quando  il 
bene  e  discosto,  ma  quando  ti  si  ap- 
pressa  si  revoltano,  e  quel  Principe 
clie  si  e  tutto  fondato  in  su  le  parole 


PHILIP’S  MACCHIAVELLIANISM. 


541 


was  ever  guided.  And  those  well-known  texts  of  hypocrisy, 
strewn  by  the  same  hand,  had  surely  not  fallen  on  stony 
ground  when  received  into  Philip's  royal  soul. 

u  Often  it  is  necessary,  in  order  to  maintain  power,  to  act 
contrary  to  faith,  contrary  to  charity,  contrary  to  humanity, 

contrary  to  religion . A  prince  ought  therefore  to 

have  great  care  that  from  his  mouth  nothing  should  ever 
come  that  is  not  filled  with  those  five  qualities,  and  that  to 
see  and  hear  him  he  should  appear  all  piety,  all  faith,  all 
integrity,  all  humanity,  all  religion.  And  nothing  is  more 
necessary  than  to  seem  to  have  this  last-mentioned  quality. 

. Every  one  sees  what  you  seem,  few  perceive  what 

you  are." 37 

Surely  this  hand-book  of  cant  had  been  Philip's  vade 
mecum  through  his  life's  pilgrimage. 

It  is  at  least  a  consolation  to  reflect  that  a  career  controlled 
by  such  principles  came  to  an  ignominious  close.  Had  the 
mental  capacity  of  this  sovereign  been  equal  to  his  criminal 
intent,  even  greater  woe  might  have  befallen  the  world.  But 
his  intellect  was  less  than  mediocre.  His  passion  for  the 
bureau,  his  slavery  to  routine,  his  puerile  ambition  personally 
to  superintend  details  which  could  have  been  a  thousand 
times  better  administered  by  subordinates,  proclaimed  every 
day  the  narrowness  of  his  mind.  His  diligence  in  reading,* 
writing,  and  commenting  upon  despatches  may  excite  admira¬ 
tion  only  where  there  has  been  no  opportunity  of  judging  of 
his  labours  by  personal  inspection.  Those  familiar  with  the 
dreary  displays  of  his  penmanship  must  admit  that  such 
work  could  have  been  at  least  as  well  done  by  a  copying 
clerk  of  average  capacity.  His  ministers  were  men  of 


lorot  trovandosi  nudo  d’  altri  prepara- 
menti  revina.”  ....  “  Non  pno  un 
signor  prudente  ne  debbe  osservar  la 
fede  quando  tale  osservanzia  gli  torni 
contro  e  che  sono  spente  le  cagioni  che 
la  feciono  promettere. 

“  E  se  gli  uoinini  fussero  tntti  buoni 
qnesto  precetto  non  saria  bnono,  ma 
perche  son  tristi  e  non  l’osservereb- 
bono  a  te,  tu  ancora  non  l’bai  de  osser- 


vare  a  loro  .  .  .  Ma  e  necessario 
questa  natura  (di  volpe)  saperla  ben 
colorire  ed  essere  gran  simnlatore  e 
dissimulatore,  e  sono  tanto  simplici 
gli  nomini  e  tanto  obbediscono  alle 
necessita  presenti,  die  colui  che  in- 
ganna  trovera  sempre  chi  si  lascera 
ingannare.” — II  Principe,  cap.  xvii. 
xviii. 

37  II  Principe,  cap.  xviii. 


542 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXV. 


respectable  ability,  but  be  imagined  himself,  as  he  advanced 
in  life,  far  superior  to  any  counsellor  that  he  could  possibly 
select,  and  was  accustomed  to  consider  himself  the  first 
statesman  in  the  world. 

His  reign  was  a  thorough  and  disgraceful  failure.  Its 
opening  scene  was  the  treaty  of  Cateau  Cambresis,  by  which 
a  triumph  over  France  had  been  achieved  for  him  by  the 
able  generals  and  statesmen  of  his  father,  so  humiliating  and 
complete  as  to  make  every  French  soldier  or  politician  gnash 
his  teeth.  Its  conclusion  was  the  treaty  of  Yervins  with  the 
same  power,  by  which  the  tables  were  completely  turned,  and 
which  was  as  utterly  disgraceful  to  Spain  as  that  of  Cateau 
Cambresis  had  been  to  France.  He  had  spent  his  life  in 
fighting  with  the  spirit  of  the  age — that  invincible  power  of 
which  he  had  not  the  faintest  conception — while  the  utter 
%  want  of  adaptation  of  his  means  to  his  ends  often  bordered, 
not  on  the  ludicrous,  but  the  insane. 

He  attempted  to  reduce  the  free  Netherlands  to  slavery 
and  to  papacy.  Before  his  death  they  had  expanded  into  an 
independent  republic,  with  a  policy  founded  upon  religious 
toleration  and  the  rights  of  man.  He  had  endeavoured  all 
his  life  to  exclude  the  Bearnese  from  his  heritage  and  to  place 
himself  or  his  daughter  on  the  vacant  throne  ;  before  his 
death  Henry  IY.  was  the  most  powerful  and  popular  sovereign 
that  had  ever  reigned  in  France.  He  had  sought  to  invade 
and  to  conquer  England,  and  to  dethrone  and  assassinate  its 
queen.  But  the  queen  outwitted,  outgeneralled,  and  out¬ 
lived  him  ;  English  soldiers  and  sailors,  assisted  by  their 
Hutch  comrades  in  arms,  accomplished  on  the  shores  of 
Spain  what  the  Invincible  Armada  had  in  vain  essayed 
against  England  and  Holland ;  while  England,  following 
thenceforth  the  opposite  system  to  that  of  absolutism  and'the 
Inquisition,  became,  after  centuries  of  struggles  towards  the 
right,  the  most  powerful,  prosperous,  and  enlightened  king¬ 
dom  in  the  world. 

His  exchequer,  so  full  when  he  ascended  the  throne  as  to 
excite  the  awe  of  contemporary  financiers,  was  reduced  before 


PHILIP’S  OBJECT  NOT  REALIZED. 


543 


his  death  to  a  net  income  of  some  four  millions  of  dollars. 
His  armies,  which  had  been  the  wonder  of  the  age  in  the 
earlier  period  of  his  reign  for  discipline,  courage,  and  every 
quality  on  which  military  efficiency  depends,  were  in  his 
later  years  a  horde  of  starving,  rebellious  brigands,  more 
formidable  to  their  commanders  than  to  the  foe.  Mutiny 
was  the  only  organised  military  institution  that  was  left  in 
his  dominions,  while  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  which  it  was 
the  fell  purpose  of  his  life  from  youth  upwards  to  establish 
over  the  world,  became  a  loathsome  and  impossible  nuisance 
eveiywhere  but  in  its  natal  soil. 


If  there  be  such  a  thing  as  historical  evidence,  then 
is  Philip  II.  convicted  before  the  tribunal  of  impartial 
posterity  of  every  crime  charged  in  his  indictment.  He 
lived  seventy-one  years  and  three  months,  he  reigned  forty- 
three  years.  He  endured  the  martyrdom  of  his  last  illness 
with  the  heroism  of  a  saint,  and  died  in  the  certainty  of 
immortal  bliss  as  the  reward  of  his  life  of  evil. 


544 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXVI. 


CHAPTER  XXXYI. 


Commercial  prospects  of  Holland —  Travels  of  John  Huy  gen  van  Linschoten  — 
Their  effect  on  the  trade  and  prosperity  of  the  Netherlands  —  Progress 
of  nautical  and  geographical  science  —  Maritime  exploration  —  Fantastic 
notions  respecting  the  polar  regions — State  of  nautical  science — First 
arctic  expedition  —  Success  of  the  voyagers  —  Failure  of  the  second  expedi¬ 
tion  —  Third  attempt  to  discover  the  n#rth-east  passage  —  Discovery  of 
Spitzbergen  —  Scientific  results  of  the  voyage  —  Adventures  in  the  frozen 
regions  —  Death  of  William  Barendz  —  Return  of  the  voyagers  to  Amster¬ 
dam  —  Southern  expedition  against  the  Spanish  power  —  Disasters  attend¬ 
ant  upon  it  —  Extent  of  Dutch  discovery. 


During  a  great  portion  of  Philip's  reign  the  Netherlander, 
despite  their  rebellion,  had  been  permitted  to  trade  with 
Spain.  A  spectacle  had  thus  been  presented  of  a  vigorous 
traffic  between  two  mighty  belligerents,  who  derived  from 
their  intercourse  with  each  other  the  means  of  more 
thoroughly  carrying  on  their  mutual  hostilities.  The  war 
fed  their  commerce,  and  commerce  fed  their  war.  The  great 
maritime  discoveries  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  had 
enured  quite  as  much  to  the  benefit  of  the  Flemings  and 
Hollanders  as  to  that  of  the  Spaniards  and  Portuguese,  to 
whom  they  were  originally  due.  Antwerp  and  subsequently 
Amsterdam  had  thriven  on  the  great  revolution  of  the  Indian 
trade  which  Vasco  de  Gama's  voyage  around  the  Cape  had 
effected.  The  nations  of  the  Baltic  and  of  farthest  Ind  now 
exchanged  their  products  on  a  more  extensive  scale  and  with 
a  wider  sweep  across  the  earth  than  when  the  mistress  of  the 
Adriatic  alone  held  the  keys  of  Asiatic  commerce.  The 
haughty  but  intelligent  oligarchy  of  shopkeepers,  which  had 
grown  so  rich  and  attained  so  eminent  a  political  position 
from  its  magnificent  monopoly,  already  saw  the  sources  of  its 
grandeur  drying  up  before  its  eyes,  now  that  the  world's 
trade — for  the  first  time  in  human  history — had  become 
oceanic.  , 


NETHERLAND  COMMERCE.  545 

In  Holland,  long  since  denuded  of  forests,  were  great 
markets  of  timber,  wbither  shipbuilders  and  architects  came 
from  all  parts  of  the  world  to  gather  the  utensils  for  their 
craft.  There,  too,  where  scarcely  a  pebble  had  been  de¬ 
posited  in  the  course  of  the  geological  transformations  of  our 
planet,  were  great  artificial  quarries  of  granite,  and  marble, 
and  basalt.  Wheat  was  almost  as  rare  a  product  of  the  soil 
as  cinnamon,  yet  the  granaries  of  Christendom,  and  the 
Oriental  magazines  of  spices  and  drugs,  were  found  chiefly  on 
that  bairen  sjjot  of  earth.  There  was  the  great  international 
mart  where  the  Osterling,  the  Turk,  the  Hindoo,  the  Atlantic 
and  the  Mediterranean  traders  stored  their  wares  and  nego¬ 
tiated  their  exchanges  ;  while  the  curious  and  highly-prized 
products  of  Netherlancl  skill — broadcloths,  tapestries,  brocades, 
laces,  substantial  fustians,  magnificent  damasks,  finest  linens 
—increased  the  mass  of  visible  wealth  piled  mountains  high 

upon  that  extraordinary  soil  which  produced  nothin^  and 
teemed  with  everything. 

After  the  incorporation  of  Portugal  with  Spain  however 
many  obstacles  were  thrown  in  the  way  of  the  trade  from  the 
Netherlands  to  Lisbon  and  the  Spanish  ports.  Loud  and 
bitter  were  the  railings  uttered,  as  we  know,  by  the  English 
sovereign  and  her  statesmen  against  the  nefarious  traffic 
which  the  Hutch  republic  persisted  in  carrying  on  with  the 
common  enemy.  But  it  is  very  certain  that  although  the 
Spanish  armadas  would  have  found  it  comparatively  difficult 
to  equip  themselves  without  the  tar  and  the  timber,  the 
cordage,  the  stores,  and  the  biscuits  furnished  by  the  Hol¬ 
landers,  the  rebellious  commonwealth,  if  excluded  from  the 
worlds  commerce,  in  which  it  had  learned  to  play  so  con- 
ti  oiling  a  part,  must  have  ceased  to  exist.  For  without 
foreign  navigation  the  independent  republic  was  an  incon¬ 
ceivable  idea.  Not  only  would  it  have  been  incapable  of 
continuing  the  struggle  with  the  greatest  monarch  in  the 
world,  but  it  might  as  well  have  buried  itself  once  and 
for  ever  beneath  the  waves  fron^  which  it  had  scarcely 

emerged.  Commerce  and  Holland  were  simply  synonymous 
vol.  hi. — 2  N 


546 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXYI. 


terms.  Its  morsel  of  territory  was  but  the  wharf  to  which  the 
republic  was  occasionally  moored  ;  its  home  was  in  every 
ocean  and  over  all  the  world.  Nowhere  had  there  ever 
existed  before  so  large  a  proportion  of  population  that  was 
essentially  maritime.  They  were  born  sailors— men  and 
women  alike — and  numerous  were  the  children  who  had 
never  set  foot  on  the  shore.  At  the  period  now  treated  of 
the  republic  had  three  times  as  many  ships  and  sailors  as  any 
one  nation  in  the  world.  Compared  with  modern  times,  and 
especially  with  the  gigantic  commercial  strides  of  the  two 
great  Anglo-Saxon  families,  the  statistics  both  of  population 
and  of  maritime  commerce  in  that  famous  and  most  vigorous 
epoch  would  seem  sufficiently  meagre.  Yet  there  is  no  doubt 
that  in  the  relative  estimate  of  forces  then  in  activity  it 
would  be  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  naval  power  of  the  young 
commonwealth.  When  therefore,  towards  the  close  of 
Philip  II.'s  reign,  it  became  necessary  to  renounce  the 
carrying  trade  with  Spain  and  Portugal,  by  which  the  com¬ 
munication  with  India  and  China  was  effected,  or  else  to 
submit  to  the  confiscation  of  Dutch  ships  in  Spanish  ports, 
and  the  confinement  of  Dutch  sailors  in  the  dungeons  of  the 
Inquisition,  a  more  serious  dilemma  was  presented  to  the 
statesmen  of  the  Netherlands  than  they  had  ever  been  called 
upon  to  solve. 

F or  the  splendid  fiction  of  the  Spanish  lake  was  still  a 
formidable  fact.  Not  only  were  the  Portuguese  and  Spaniards 
almost  the  only  direct  traders  to  the  distant  East,  but  even 
had  no  obstacles  been  interposed  by  Government,  the  exclu¬ 
sive  possession  of  information  as  to  the  course  of  trade,  the 
pre-eminent  practical  knowledge  acquired  by  long  experience 
of  that  dangerous  highway  around  the  world  at  a  time  when 
oceanic  navigation  was  still  in  its  infancy,  would  have  given 
a  monopoly  of  the  traffic  to  the  descendants  of  the  bold 
discoverers  who  first  opened  the  great  path  to  the  world's 
commerce. 

The  Hollanders  as  a  nation  had  never  been  engaged  in  the 
direct  trade  around  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  Fortunately 


547 


TRAVELS  OF  VAN  LINSCHOTEN. 

however  at  this  crisis  in  their  commercial  destiny  there  was 
a  single  Hollander  who  had  thoroughly  learned  the  lesson 
which  it  was  so  necessary  that  all  his  countrymen  should  now 
be  taught.  Few  men  of  that  period  deserve  a  more  kindly 
and  more  honourable  remembrance  by  posterity  for  their 
contributions  to  science  and  the  progress  of  civilization  than 
John  Huygen  van  Linschoten,  son  of  a  plain  burgher  of 
West  Friesland.  Having  always  felt  a  strong  impulse  to 
study  foreign  history  and  distant  nations  and  customs,  he 
resolved  at  the  early  age  of  seventeen  “to  absent  himself 
from  his  fatherland,  and  from  the  conversation  of  friends  and 
1  datives,  in  order  to  gratify  this  inclination  for  self-improve¬ 
ment.  After  a  residence  of  two  years  in  Lisbon  he  departed 
for  India  in  the  suite  of  the  Archbishop  of  Goa,  and  remained 
in  the  East  for  nearly  thirteen  years.  Diligently  examining 
all  the  strange  phenomena  which  came  under  his  observation 
and  patiently  recording  the  results  of  his  researches  day  by 
day  and  year  by  year,  he  amassed  a  fund  of  information 
which  he  modestly  intended  for  the  entertainment  of  his 
fiiends  when  he  should  return  to  his  native  country.  It  was 
his  wish  that  ^  withotit  stirring  from  their  firesides  or 
counting-houses  ”  they  might  participate  with  him  in  the 
gratification  and  instruction  to  be  derived  from  looking  upon 
a  world  then  so  strange,  and  for  Europeans  still  so  new.  He 
described  the  manners  and  customs,  the  laws,  the  religions, 
the  social  and  political  institutions,  of  the  ancient  races  who 
dwelt  in  either  peninsula  of  India.  He  studied  the  natural 
history,  the  botany,  the  geography  of  all  the  regions  which  he 
visited.  Especially  the  jDroducts  which  formed  the  material 
of  a  great  traffic  ;  the  system  of  culture,  the  means  of  trans¬ 
portation,  and  the  course  of  commerce,  were  examined  by 
him  with  minuteness,  accuracy,  and  breadth  of  vision.  He 
was  neither  a  trader  nor  a  sailor,  but  a  man  of  letters,  a 
scientific  and  j)rofessional  traveller.  But  it  was  obvious  when 
he  ig turned,  rich  with  the  spoils  of  oriental  study  during 
thirteen  years  of  life,  that  the  results  of  his  researches  were 
worthy  of  a  wider  circulation  than  that  which  he  had  origin- 


548 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXVI. 


ally  contemplated.  His  work  was  given  to  the  public  in  the 
year  159 6,  and  was  studied  with  avidity  not  only  by  men  of 
science  hut  by  merchants  and  seafarers.  He  also  added  to 
the  record  of  his  Indian  experiences  a  practical  manual  for 
navigators.  He  described  the  course  of  the  voyage  from 
Lisbon  to  the  East,  the  currents,  the  trade-winds  and 
monsoons,  the  harbours,  the  islands,  the  shoals,  the  sunken 
rocks  and  dangerous  quicksands,  and  he  accompanied  his 
work  with  various  maps  and  charts,  both  general  and  special, 
of  land  and  water,  rarely  delineated  before  his  day,  as  well 
as  by  various  astronomical  and  mathematical  calculations. 
Already  a  countryman  of  his  own,  Wagenaar  of  Zeeland,  had 
laid  the  mariners  of  the  world  under  special  obligation  by  a 
manual  which  came  into  such  universal  use  that  for  centuries 
afterwards  the  sailors  of  England  and  of  other  countries 
called  their  indispensable  vade-mecum  a  Wagenaar.  But  in 
that  text-book  but  little  information  was  afforded  to  eastern 
voyagers,  because,  before  the  enterprise  of  Linschoten,  little 
was  known  of  the  Orient  except  to  the  Portuguese  and 
Spaniards,  by  whom  nothing  was  communicated. 

The  work  of  Linschoten  was  a  source  of  wealth,  both  from 
the  scientific  treasures  which  it  diffused  among  an  active  and 
intelligent  people,  and  the  impulse  which  it  gave  to  that 
direct  trade  between  the  Netherlands  and  the  East  which 
had  been  so  long  deferred,  and  which  now  came  to  relieve  the 
commerce  of  the  republic,  and  therefore  the  republic  itself, 
from  the  danger  of  positive  annihilation. 

It  is  not’ necessary  for  my  purpose  to  describe  in  detail  the 
series  of  voyages  by  way  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  which, 
beginning  with  the  adventures  of  the  brothers  Houtmann  at 
this  period,  and .  with  the  circumnavigation  of  the  world  by 
Olivier  van  Noord,  made  the  Dutch  for  a  long  time  the 
leading  Christian  nation  in  those  golden  regions,  and  which 
carried  the  United  Netherlands  to  the  highest  point  of  pros¬ 
perity  and  power.  The  Spanish  monopoly  of  the  Indian  and 
the  Pacific  Ocean  was  effectually  disposed  of,  but  the  road 
was  not  a  new  road,  nor  did  any  striking  discoveries  at  this 


DUTCH  ENTERPRISE. 


549 

immediate  epoch  illustrate  the  enterprise  of  Holland  in  the 
East,  In  the  age  just  opening  the  homely  names  most 
dear  to  the  young  republic  were  to  he  inscribed  on  capes, 
islands,  and  promontories,  seas,  bays,  and  continents.  There 
was  soon  to  be  a  “  Staten  Island  ”  both  in  the  frozen  circles  of 
the  northern  and  of  the  southern  pole,  as  well  as  in  that 
favoured  region  where  now  the  mighty  current  of  a  world¬ 
wide  commerce  flows  through  the  gates  of  that  great  metro¬ 
polis  of  the  western  world,  once  called  Hew  Amsterdam. 
Those  well-beloved  words,  Orange  and  Nassau,  Maurice  and 
William,  intermingled  with  the  names  of  many  an  ancient 
tovn  and  village,  or  with  the  simple  patronymics  of  hardy 
navigators  or  honoured  statesmen,  were  to  make  the  verna¬ 
cular  of  the  new  commonwealth  a  familiar  sound  in  the 
lemotest  comeis  of  the  earth  *  while  a  fifth  continent,  dis¬ 
covered  by  the  enterprise  of  Hollanders,  was  soon  to  be  fitly 
baptized  with  the  name  of  the  fatherland.  Posterity  has 
been  neither  just  nor  grateful,  and  those  early  names  which 
Hutch  genius  and  entei prise  wrote  upon  so  many  prominent 
points  of  the  earth's  surface,  then  seen  for  the  first  time  by 
European  eyes,  are  no  longer  known. 

The  impulse  given  to  the  foreign  trade  of  the  Netherlands 
by  the  publication  of  Linschoten’s  work  was  destined  to  be  a 
lasting  one.  Meantime  this  most  indefatigable  and  en¬ 
terprising  voyager— one  of  those  men  who  had  done  nothing  in 
his  own  estimation  so  long  as  aught  remained  to  do — was 
deeply  pondering  the  possibility  of  a  shorter  road  to  the 
opulent  kingdoms  of  Cathay  and  of  China  than  the  one 
which  the  genius  of  He  Gama  had  opened  to  his  sovereigns. 
Geography  as  a  science  was  manifesting  the  highest  activity 
at  that  period,  but  was  still  in  a  rudimentary  state.  To  the 
Hollanders  especially  much  of  the  progress  already  made  by 
it  was  owing.  The  maps  of  the  world  by  Mercator  of  Leyden, 
published  on  a  large  scale,  together  with  many  astronomical 
and  geographical  charts,  delineations  of  exploration,  and 
other  scientific  works,  at  the  magnificent  printing  establish¬ 
ment  of  William  Blaeuw,  in  Amsterdam,  the  friend  and  pupil 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXVI, 


550 


of  Tyclio  Bralie;  and  the  first  in  that  line  of  typographers 
who  made  the  name  famous,  constituted  an  epoch  in  cosmo¬ 
graphy.  Another  ardent  student  of  geography  lived  in 
Amsterdam,  Peter  Plancius  by  name,  a  Calvinist  preacher, 
and  one  of  the  most  zealous  and  intolerant  of  his  cloth.  In 
an  age  and  a  country  which  had  not  yet  thoroughly  learned 
the  lesson  taught  by  hundreds  of  thousands  of  murders 
committed  by  an  orthodox  church,  he  was  one  of  those  who 
considered  the  substitution  of  a  new  dogma  and  a  new  hier¬ 
archy,  a  new  orthodoxy  and  a  new  church,  in  place  of  the 
old  ones,  a  satisfactory  result  for  fifty  years  of  perpetual 
bloodshed.  Nether  Torquemada  nor  Peter  Titelmann  could 
have  more  thoroughly  abhorred  a  Jew  or  a  Calvinist  than 
Peter  Plancius  detested  a  Lutheran,  or  any  other  of  the 
unclean  tribe  of  remonstrants.  That  the  intolerance  of  himself 
and  his  comrades  was  confined  to  fiery  words,  and  was  not 
manifested  in  the  actual  burning  alive  of  the  heterodox,  was  a 
mark  of  the  advance  made  by  the  mass  of  mankind  in  despite 
of  bigotry.  It  was  at  any  rate  a  solace  to  those  who  believed 
in  human  progress,  even  in  matters  of  conscience,  that  no 
other  ecclesiastical  establishment  was  ever  likely  to  imitate 
the  matchless  machinery  for  the  extermination  of  heretical 
vermin  which  the  Church  of  Pome  had  found  in  the  Spanish 
Inquisition.  The  blasts  of  denunciation  from  the  pulpit  of 
Plancius  have  long  since  mingled  with  empty  air  and  been 
forgotten,  but  his  services  in  the  cause  of  nautical  enterprise 
and  geographical  science,  which  formed,  as  it  were,  a  re¬ 
laxation  to  what  he  deemed  the  more  serious  pursuits  of 
theology,  will  endear  his  name  for  ever  to  the  lovers  of 
civilization. 

Plancius  and  Dr.  Francis  Maalzoon — the  enlightened 
pensionary  of  Enkhuizen — had  studied  long  and  earnestly 
the  history  and  aspects  of  the  oceanic  trade,  which  had  been 
unfolding  itself  then  for  a  whole  century,  but  was  still  com¬ 
paratively  new,  while  Barneveld,  ever  ready  to  assist  in  the 
advancement  of  science,  and  to  foster  that  commerce  which 
was  the  life  of  the  commonwealth,  was  most  favourably 


MARITIME  DISCOVERY. 


551 


disposed  towards  projects  of  maritime  exploration.  For 
hitherto,  although  the  Hollanders  had  been  among  the 
hardiest  and  the  foremost  in  the  art  of  navigation,  they  had 
contributed  but  little  to  actual  discovery.  A  Genoese  had  led 
the  way  to  America,  while  one  Portuguese  mariner  had  been 
the  first  to  double  the  southern  cape  of  Africa,  and  another, 
at  the  opposite  side  of  the  world,  had  opened  what  was  then 
supposed  the  only  passage  through  the  vast  continent  which, 
according  to  ideas  then  prevalent,  extended  from  the  Southern 
Pole  to  Greenland,  and  from  Java  to  Patagonia.  But  it  was 
easier  to  follow  in  the  wake  of  Columbus,  Gama,  or  Magellan, 
than  to  strike  out  new  pathways  b}r  the  aid  of  scientific 
deduction  and  audacious  enterprise.  At  a  not  distant  day 
many  errors,  disseminated  by  the  boldest  of  Portuguese  navi¬ 
gators,  were  to  be  corrected  by  the  splendid  discoveries  of 
sailors  sent  forth  by  the  Hutch  republic,  and  a  rich  harvest 
in  consequence  was  to  be  reaped  both  by  science  and  com¬ 
merce.  It  is  true,  too,  that  the  Nether]  anders  claimed  to 
have  led  the  way  to  the  great  voyages  of  Columbus  by  their 
discovery  of  the  Azores.  J oshua  van  den  Berg,  a  merchant 
of  Bruges,  it  was  vigorously  maintained,  had  landed  in  that 
archipelago  in  the  year  1445.  He  had  found  there,  however, 
no  vestiges  of  the  human  race,  save  that  upon  the  principal 
island,  in  the  midst  of  the  solitude,  was  seen— so  ran  the  tale 
— a  colossal  statue  of  a  man  on  horseback,  wrapped  in  a 
cloak,  holding  the  reins  of  his  steed  in  his  left  hand,  and 
solemnly  extending  his  right  arm  to  the  west.  This  gigantic 
and  solitary  apparition  on  a  rock  in  the  ocean  was  suj)posed 
to  indicate  the  existence  of  a  new  world,  and  the  direction  in 
which  it  was  to  be  sought,  but  it  is  probable  that  the  ship¬ 
wrecked  Fleming  was  quite  innocent  of  any  such  magnificent 
visions.  The  original  designation  of  the  Flemish  Islands, 
derived  from  their  first  colonization  by  Netherlanders,  was 
changed  to  Azores  by  Portuguese  mariners,  amazed  at  the 
myriads  of  hawks  which  they  found  there.  But  if  the  Nether- 
landers  had  never  been  able  to  make  higher  claims  as  dis¬ 
coverers  than  the  accidental  and  dubious  landing  upon  an 


552 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXVI. 


unknown  shore  of  a  tempest-tost  mariner,  their  position  in 
the  records  of  geographical  exploration  would  not  be  so 
eminent  as  it  certainly  is. 

Meantime  the  eyes  of  Linschoten,  Plancius,  Maalzoon, 
Barneveld,  and  of  many  other  ardent  philosophers  and 
patriots,  were  turned  anxiously  towards  the  regions  of  the 
North  Pole.  Two  centuries  later — and  still  more  recently 
in  our  own  day  and  generation — what  heart  has  not  thrilled 
with  sympathy  and  with  pride  at  the  story  of  the  magnificent 
exploits,  the  heroism,  the  contempt  of  danger  and  of  suffer¬ 
ing  which  have  characterized  the  great  navigators  whose 
names  are  so  familiar  to  the  world  ;  especially  the  arctic 
explorers  of  England  and  of  our  own  country  ?  The  true 
chivalry  of  an  advanced  epoch — recognizing  that  there  can 
he  no  sublimer  vocation  for  men  of  action  than  to  extend  the 
boundary  of  human  knowledge  in  the  face  of  perils  and  ob¬ 
stacles  more  formidable  and  more  mysterious*  than  those 
encountered  by  the  knights  of  old  in  the  cause  of  the  Lord's 
sepulchre  or  the  holy  grail — they  have  thus  embodied  in  a 
form  which  will  ever  awaken  enthusiasm  in  imaginative 
natures,  the  noble  impulses  of  our  latter  civilization.  To 
win  the  favour  of  that  noblest  of  mistresses,  Science  ;  to  take 
authoritative  possession,  in  her  name,  of  the  whole  domain  of 
humanity  ;  to  open  new  pathways  to  commerce  ;  to  .elevate 
and  enlarge  the  human  intellect,  and  to  multiply  indefinitely 
the  sum  of  human  enjoyments  ;  to  bring  the  inhabitants  of 
the  earth  into  closer  and  more  friendly  communication,  so 
that,  after  some  yet  unimagined  inventions  and  discoveries, 
and  after  the  lapse  of  many  years,  which  in  the  sight  of  the 
Omnipotent  are  but  as  one  day,  the  human  race  may  form 
one  pacific  family,  instead  of  being  broken  up,  as  are  the 
most  enlightened  of  peoples  now,  into  warring  tribes  of  inter¬ 
necine  savages,  prating  of  the  advancement  of  civilization  while 
coveting  each  other's  possessions,  intriguing  against  each 
other's  interests,  and  thoroughly  in  earnest  when  cutting 
each  other’s  throats  ;  this  is  truly  to  be  the  pioneers  of  a 
possible  civilization,  compared  to  which  our  present  culture 


FANCIFUL  IDEAS  OF  THE  POLAR  REGIONS.  553 

may  seem  but  a  poor  barbarism.  If  the  triumphs  and  joys 
of  the  battle-field  have  been  esteemed  among  the  noblest 
themes  for  poet,  painter,  or  chronicler,  alike  in  the  mists  of 
antiquity  and  in  the  full  glare  of  later  days,  surely  a  still 
more  encouraging  spectacle  for  those  who  believe  in  the 
world’s  progress  is  the  exhibition  of  almost  infinite  valour, 
skill,  and  endurance  in  the  cause  of  science  and  humanity. 

It  was  believed  by  the  Dutch  cosmographers  that  some  ten 
thousand  miles  of  voyaging  might  be  saved,  could  the  passage 
to  what  was  then  called  the  kingdoms  of  Cathay  be  effected 
by  way  of  the  north.  It  must  be  remembered  that  there 
were  no  maps  of  the  unknown  regions  lying  beyond  the 
northern  headlands  of  Sweden.  Delineations  of  continents, 
islands,  straits,  rivers,  and  seas,  over  which  every  modern 
schoolboy  pores,  were  not  attempted  even  by  the  hand  of 
fancy.  It  was  perhaps  easier  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth 
century  than  it  is  now,  to  admit  the  possibility  of  a  practical 
path  to  China  and  India  across  the  pole  ;  for  delusions  as  to 
climate  and  geographical  configuration  then  prevalent  have 
long  since  been  dispelled.  While,  therefore,  at  least  as  much 
heroism  was  required  then  as  now  to  launch  into  those  un¬ 
known  seas,  in  hope  to  solve  the  dread  mystery  of  the  North, 
there  was  even  a  firmer  hope  than  can  ever  be  cherished 
again  of  deriving  an  immediate  and  tangible  benefit  from 
the  enterprise.  Plancius  and  Maalzoon,  the  States- General 
and  Prince  Maurice,  were  convinced  that  the  true  road  to 
Cathay  would  be  found  by  sailing  north-east.  Linschoten, 
the  man  who  knew  India  and  the  beaten  paths  to  India 
better  than  any  other  living  Christian,  was  so  firmly  con¬ 
vinced  of  the  truth  of  this  theory,  that  he  volunteered  to 
take  the  lead  in  the  first  expedition.  Many  were  the  fan¬ 
tastic  dreams  in  which  even  the  wisest  thinkers  of  the  age 
indulged  as  to  the  polar  regions.  Four  straits  or  channels, 
pierced  by  a  magic  hand,  led,  it  was  thought,  from  the  inte¬ 
rior  of  Muscovy  towards  the  arctic  seas.  According  to  some 
speculators,  however,  those  seas  enclosed  a  joolar  continent 
where  perpetual  summer  and  unbroken  daylight  reigned,  and 


554 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXVI. 


whose  inhabitants,  having  obtained  a  high  degree  of  culture, 
lived  in  the  practice  of  every  virtue  and  in  the  enjoyment  of 
every  blessing.  Others  peopled  these  mysterious  regions 
with  horrible  savages,  having  hoofs  of  horses  and  heads  of 
dogs,  and  with  no  (Slothing  save  their  own  long  ears  coiled 
closely  around  their  limbs  and  bodies  ;  while  it  was  deemed 
almost  certain  that  a  race  of  headless  men,  with  eyes  in  their 
breasts,  were  the  most  enlightened  among  those  distant  tribes. 
Instead  of  constant  sunshine,  it  was  believed  by  such  theorists 
that  the  wretched  inhabitants  of  that  accursed  zone  were  im¬ 
mersed  in  almost  incessant  fogs  or  tempests,  that  the  whole 
population  died  every  winter  and  were  only  recalled  to  tem¬ 
porary  existence  by  the  advent  of  a  tardy  and  evanescent 
spring.  No  doubt  was  felt  that  the  voyager  in  those  latitudes 
would  have  to  encounter  volcanoes  of  tire  and  mountains  of 
ice,  together  with  land  and  sea  monsters  more  ferocious  than 
the  eye  of  man  had  ever  beheld  ;  but  it  was  universally  ad¬ 
mitted  that  *an  opening,  either  by  strait  or  sea,  into  the 
desired  Indian  haven  would  reveal  itself  at  last. 

The  instruments  of  navigation  too  were  but  rude  and  de¬ 
fective  compared  to  the  beautiful  machinery  with  which 
modern  art  and  science  now  assist  their  votaries  along  the 
dangerous  path  of  discovery.  The  small  yet  unwieldy,  awk¬ 
ward,  and,  to  the  modern  mind,  most  grotesque  vessels  in 
which  such  audacious  deeds  were  performed  in  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries  awaken  perpetual  astonishment. 
A  ship  of  a  hundred  tons  burden,  built  up  like  a  tower,  both 
at  stem  and  stern,  and  presenting  in  its  broad  bulbous  prow, 
its  width  of  beam  in  proportion  to  its  length,  its  depression 
amidships,  and  in  other  sins  against  symmetry,  as  much  op¬ 
position  to  progress  over  the-  waves  as  could  well  be  imagined, 
was  the  vehicle  in  which  those  indomitable  Dutchmen  cir¬ 
cumnavigated  the  globe  and  confronted  the  arctic  terrors 
of  either  pole.  An  astrolabe — such  as  Martin  Beheim  had 
invented  for  the  Portuguese,  a  clumsy  astronomical  ring  of 
three  feet  in  circumference — was  still  the  chief  machine  used 
for  ascertaining  the  latitude,  and  on  shipboard  a  most  de- 


1594. 


SCIENCE  OF  NAVIGATION. 


555 


fective  one.  There  were  no  logarithms,  no  means  of  determin¬ 
ing  at  sea  the  variations  of  the  magnetic  needle,  no  system  of 
dead  reckoning  by  throwing  the  log  and  chronicling  the 
courses  traversed.  The  firearms  with  which  the  sailors  were 
to  do  battle  with  the  unknown  enenties  that  might  beset 
their  path  were  rude  and  clumsy  to  handle.  The  art  of  com¬ 
pressing  and  condensing  provisions  was  unknown.  They  had 
no  tea  nor  coffee  to  refresh  the  nervous  system  in  its  terrible 
trials  )  but  there  was  one  deficiency  which  perhaps  supplied 
the  place  of  many  positive  luxuries.  Those  Hollanders  drank 
no  ardent  spirits.  They  had  beer  and  wine  in  reasonable 
quantities,  but  no  mention  is  ever  made  in  the  journals  of 
their  famous  voyages  of  any  more  potent  liquor  ;  and  to  this 
circumstance  doubtless  the  absence  of  mutinous  or  disorderly 
demonstrations,  under  the  most  trying  circumstances,  may  in 
a  great  degree  be  attributed. 

Thus,  these  navigators  were  but  slenderly  provided  with 
the  appliances  with  which  hazardous  voyages  have  been 
smoothed  by  modern  art ;  but  they  had  iron  hearts,  faith  in 
themselves,  in  their  commanders,  in  their  republic,  and  in  the 
Omnipotent ;  perfect  discipline  and  unbroken  cheerfulness 
amid  toil,  suffering,  and  danger.  Ho  chapter  of  history  utters 
a  more  beautiful  homily  on  devotion  to  duty  as  the  true 
guiding  principle  of  human  conduct  than  the  artless  narra-  • 
tives  which  have  been  preserved  of  many  of  these  maritime 
enterprises.  It  is  for  these  noble  lessons  that  they  deserve  to 
be  kept  in  perpetual  memory. 

And  in  no  individual  of  that  day  were  those  excellent 
qualities  more  thoroughly  embodied  than  in  William  Ba- 
rendz,  pilot  and  burgher  of  Amsterdam.  It  was  partly 
under  his  charge  that  the  first  little  expedition  set  forth 
on  the  5th  of  June,  1594,  towards  those  unknown  arctic 
seas,  which  no  keel  from  Christendom  had  ever  ploughed,  and 
to  those  fabulous  regions  where  the  foot  of  civilized  men.  had 
never  trod.  Maalzoon,  Plancius,  and  Balthaser  Moucheron 
merchant  of  Middelburg,  were  the  chief  directors  of  the  enter¬ 
prise  ;  but  there  was  a  difference  of  opinion  between  them. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXVI. 


556 


The  pensionary  was  firm  in  the  faith  that  the  true  path  to 
China  would  he  found  by  steering  through  the  passage  which 
was  known  to  exist  between  the  land  of  Nova  Zembla  and 
the  northern  coasts  of  Muscovy,  inhabited  by  the  savage 
tribes  called  Samoyeies.  It  was  believed  that,  after  passing 
those  straits,  the  shores  of  the  great  continent  would  be 
found  to  trend  in  a  south-easterly  direction,  and  that  along 
that  coast  it  would  accordingly  be  easy  to  make  the  desired 
voyage  to  the  eastern  ports  of  China.  Plancius,  on  the  con¬ 
trary,  indicated  as  the  most  promising  passage  the  outside 
course,  between  the  northern  coast  of  Nova  Zembla  and  the 
pole.  Three  ships  and  a  fishing  yacht  were  provided  by 
the  cities  of  Enkhuizen,  Amsterdam,  and  by  the  province 
of  Zeeland  respectively.  Linschoten  was  principal  commis¬ 
sioner  on  board  the  Enkhuizen  vessel,  having  with  him  an 
experienced  mariner,  Brandt  Ijsbrantz  by  name,  as  skipper. 
Barendz,  with  the  Amsterdam  ship  and  the.  yacht,  soon 
parted  company  with  the  others,  and  steered,  according  to 
the  counsels  of  Plancius  and  his  own  convictions,  for  the  open 
seas  of  the  north.  And  in  that  memorable  summer,  for  the 
first  time  in  the  world’s  history,  the  whole  desolate  region  of 

*  Nova  Zembla  was  visited,  investigated,  and  thoroughly 
mapped  out.  Barendz  sailed  as  far  as  latitude  77°,  and  to 

*  the  extreme  north-eastern  point  of  the  island.  In  a  tre¬ 
mendous  storm  off  a  cape,  which  he  ironically  christened 
Consolation-hook  (Troost-hoek),  his  ship,  drifting  under  bare 
poles  amid  ice  and  mist  and  tempest,  was  nearly  dashed  to 
pieces  ;  but  he  reached  at  last  the  cluster  of  barren  islets 
beyond  the  utmost  verge  of  Nova  Zembla,  to  which  he 
hastened  to  affix  the  cherished  appellation  of  Orange.  This, 
however,  was  the  limit  of  his  voyage.  His  ship  was  ill-pro¬ 
visioned,  and  the  weather  had  been  severe  beyond  expecta¬ 
tion.  He  turned  back  on  the  1st  of  August,  resolving  to 
repeat  his  experiment  early  in  the  following  year. 

Meantime  Linschoten,  with  the  ships  Swan  and  Mercury, 
had  entered  the  passage  which  they  called  the  Straits  of 

Nassau,  but  which  are  now  known  to  all  the  world  as  the  Wai- 

✓ 


1594. 


THE  FIRST  ARCTIC  EXPEDITION.  557 

gats.  They  were  informed  by  the  Samoyedes  of  the  coast 
that;  aftei  penetrating  the  narrow  channel,  they  would  find 
themselves  in  a  broad  and  open  sea.  Subsequent  discoveries 
showed  the  correctness  of  the  statement,  but  it  was  not  per¬ 
mitted  to  the  adventurers  on  this  occasion  to  proceed  so  far. 
The  strait  was  already  filled  with  ice-drift,  and  their  vessels 
were  brought  to  a  standstill,  after  about  a  hundred  and 
fifty  English  miles  of  progress  beyond  the  Waigats  ;  for  the 
whole  sea  of  Tartary,  converted  into  a  mass  of  ice-mountains 
and  islands,  and  lashed  into  violent  agitation  by  a  north¬ 
easterly  storm,  seemed  driving  down  upon  the  doomed 
voyagers.  It  was  obvious  that  the  sunny  clime  of  Cathay 
was  not  thus  to  be  reached,  at  least  upon  that  occasion.  With 
difficulty  they  succeeded  in  extricating  themselves  from  the 

dangers  surrounding  them,  and  emerged  at  last  from  the 
Waigats. 

On  the  15th  of  August,  in  latitude  69°  15',  they  met  the 
ship  of  Barendz  and  returned  in  company  to  Holland,  reach¬ 
ing  Amsterdam  on  the  16th  of  September.  Barendz  had  * 
found  the  seas  and  coasts  visited  by  him  destitute  of  human 
inhabitants,  but  swarming  with  polar  bears,  with  seals,  with  a 
terrible  kind  of  monsters,  then  seen  for  the  first  time,  as  large  ' 
as  oxen,  with  almost  human  faces  and  with  two  long  tusks 
protruding  from  each  grim  and  grotesque  visage.  These 
mighty  beasts,  subsequently  known  as  walrusses  or  sea-horses, 
were,  found  sometimes  in  swarms  of  two  hundred  at  a  time' 
basking  in  the  arctic  sun,  and  seemed  equally  at  home  on 
land,  m  the  sea,  and  on  icebergs.  When  aware  of  the  ap¬ 
proach  of  their  human  visitors,  they  would  slide  off  an  ice- 
block  into  the  water,  holding  their  cubs  in  their  arms,  and 
ducking  up  and  down  in  the  sea  as  if  in  sport.  Then  tossing 
the  young  ones  away,  they  would  rush  upon  the  boats  and 
endeavour  to  sink  the  strangers,  whom  they  instinctively  re¬ 
cognised  as  their  natural  enemies.  Many  were  the  severe 
combats  recorded  by  the  diarist  of  that  voyage  of  Barendz 
with  the  walrusses  and  the  bears. 

The  chief  result  of  this  first  expedition  was  the  geogra- 


558 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXVI. 


phical  investigation  made,  and,  with  unquestionable  right, 
these  earliest  arctic  pilgrims  bestowed  the  names  of  their 
choice  upon  the  regions  first  visited  by  themselves.  Accord¬ 
ing  to  the  unfailing  and  universal  impulse  on  such  occasions, 
the  names  dear  to  the  fatherland  were  naturally  selected. 
The  straits  were  called  Nassau,  the  island  at  its  mouth  be¬ 
came  States  or  Staten  Island  ;  the  northern  coasts  of  Tartary 
received  the  familiar  appellations  of  New  Holland,  New 
Friesland,  New  Walcheren  ;  while  the  two  rivers,  beyond 
which  Linschoten  did  not  advance,  were  designated  Swan 
and  Mercury  respectively,  after  his  two  ships.  Barendz,  on 
his  part,  had  duly  baptized  every  creek,  bay,  islet,  and  head¬ 
land  of  Nova  Zembla,  and  assuredly  Christian  mariner  had 
never  taken  the  latitude  of  77°  before.  Yet  the  antiquary, 
who  compares  the  maps  soon  afterwards  published  by  William 
Blaeuw  with  the  charts  now  in  familiar  use,  will  observe  with 
indignation  the  injustice  with  which  the  early  geographical 
records  have  been  defaced,  and  the  names  rightfully  be- 
.  stowed  upon  those  terrible  deserts  by  their  earliest  dis¬ 
coverers  rudely  torn  away.  The  islands  of  Orange  can  still 
be  recognized,  and  this  is  almost  the  only  vestige  left  of 
the  whole  nomenclature.  But  where  are  Cape  Nassau,  Wil¬ 
liam’s  Island,  Admiralty  Island,  Cape  Plancius,  Black-hook, 
Cross-hook,  Bear’s-hook,  Ice-hook,  Consolation-hook,  Cape 
Desire,  the  Straits  of  Nassau,  Maurice  Island,  Staten  Island, 
Enkhuizen  Island,  and  many  other  similar  appellations  ? 

The  sanguine  Linschoten,  on  his  return,  gave  so  glowing  an 
account  of  the  expedition  that  Prince  Maurice  and  Olden- 
Barneveld,  and  prominent  members  of  the  States-General,  were 
infected  with  his  enthusiasm.  He  considered  the  north-east 
passage  to  China  discovered  and  the  problem  solved.  It 
would  only  be  necessary  to  fit  out  another  expedition  on  a 
larger  scale  ‘the  next  year,  provide  it  with  a  cargo  of  mer¬ 
chandize  suitable  for  the  China  market,  and  initiate  the 
direct  polar-oriental  trade  without  further  delay.  It  seems 
amazing  that  so  incomplete  an  attempt  to  overcome  such 
formidable  obstacles  should  have  been  considered  a  decided 


1595.  PREPARATIONS  FOR  A  SECOND  VOYAGE.  559 

success.  Yet  there  is  no  doubt  of  the  genuineness  of  the 
conviction  by  which  Linschoten  was  actuated.  The  calmer 
Baiendz,  and  his  friend  and  comrade  Gerrit  de  Veer,  were 
of  opinion  that  the  philosopher  had  made  u  rather  a  free  re¬ 
presentation”  of  the  enterprise  of  1594  and  of  the  prospects 
for  the  future. 

Nevertheless,  the  general  Government,  acting  on  Lin¬ 
schoten’ s  suggestion,  furnished  a  fleet  of  seven  ships  :  two 
from  Enkhuizen,  two  from  Zeeland,  two  from  Amsterdam, 
and  a  yacht  which  was  to  he  despatched  homeward  with  the 
news,  so  soon  as  the  expedition  should  have  passed  through 
the  straits  of  Nassau,  forced  its  way  through  the  frozen  gulf 
of  Tartary,  doubled  Cape  Tabin,  and  turned  southward  on 
its  direct  course  to  China.  The  sublime  credulity  which 
accepted  Linschoten  s  hasty  solution  of  the  polar  enigma  as 
conclusive  was  fairly  matched  by  the  sedateness  with  which 
the  authorities  made  the  preparations  for  the  new  voyage. 
So  deliberately  were  the  broadcloths,  linens,  tapestries,  and 
other  assorted  articles  for  this  first  great  speculation  to 
Cathay,  via  the  North  Pole,  stowed  on  board  the  fleet,  that 
nearly  half  the  summer  had  passed  before  anchor  was  weighed 
m  the  Meuse.  The  pompous  expedition  was  thus  predestined 
to  an  almost  ridiculous  failure.  Yet  it  was  in  the  hands  of  great 
men,  both  on  shore  and  sea.  Maurice,  Barneveld,  and  Maal- 
zoon  had  personally  interested  themselves  in  the  details  of  its 
outfitting,  Linschoten  sailed  as  chief  commissioner,  the  calm 
and  intrepid  Barendz  was  upper  pilot  of  the  Vhole  fleet,  and 
a  man  who  was  afterwards  destined  to  achieve  an  immortal 
name  in  the  naval  history  of  his  country,  Jacob  Heemskerk, 
was  supercargo  of  the  Amsterdam  ship.  In  obedience  to  the 
plans  of  Linschoten  and  of  Maialzoon,  the  passage  by  way  of 
the  Waigats  was  of  course  attempted.  A  landing  was  effected 
on  the  coast  of  Tartary.  Whatever  geographical  information 
could  he  obtained  from  such  a  source  was  imparted  by  the 
wandering  Samoyedes.  On  the  2nd  of  September  a  party 
™ent  aslioie  on  Staten  Island  and  occupied  themselves  in 
gathering  some  glistening  pebbles  which  the  journalist  of  the 


560  the  united  Netherlands.  Chap,  xxxvi. 

expedition  describes  with  much  gravity  as  a  “kind  of  dia¬ 
monds,  very  plentiful  upon  the  island/'  While  two  of  the 
men  were  thus  especially  engaged  in  a  deep  hollow,  one  of 
them  found  himself  suddenly  twitched  from  behind.  “  What 
are  you  pulling  at  me  for,  mate  ?”  he  said  impatiently  to  his 
comrade  as  he  supposed.  But  his  companion  was  a  large, 
long,  lean  white  bear,  and  in  another  instant  the  head  of 
the  unfortunate  diamond-gatherer  was  off  and  the  bear  was 
sucking  his  blood.  The  other  man  escaped  to  his  friends, 
and  together  a  party  of  twenty  charged  upon  the  beast. 
Another  of  the  combatants  was  killed  and  half  devoured  by 
the  hungry  monster  before  a  fortunate  bullet  struck  him  in 
the  head.  But  even  then  the  bear  maintained  his  grip  upon 
his  two  victims,  and  it  was  not  until  his  brains  were  fairly 
beaten  out  with  the  butt  end  of  a  snaphance  by  the  boldest  of 
the  party  that  they  were  enabled  to  secure  the  bodies  of  their 
comrades  and  give  them  a  hurried  kind  of  Christian  burial. 
They  flayed  the  bear  and  took  away  his  hide  with  them,  and 
this,  together  with  an  ample  supply  of  the  diamonds  of  Staten 
Island,  was  the  only  merchandize  obtained  upon  the  voyage 
for  which  such  magnificent  preparations  had  been  made.  For, 
by  the  middle  of  September,  it  had  become  obviously  hope¬ 
less  to  attempt  the  passage  of  the  frozen  sea  that  season,  and 
the  expedition  returned,  having  accomplished  nothing.  It 
reached  Amsterdam  upon  the  18th  of  November,  1595. 

The  authorities,  intensely  disappointed  at  this  almost 
ridiculous  result,  refused  to  furnish  direct  assistance  to 
any  farther  attempts  at  arctic  explorations.  The  States- 
General  however  offered  a  reward  of  twenty-five  thousand 
florins  to  any  navigators  who  might  succeed  in  discovering  the 
northern  passage,  with  a  proportionate  sum  to  those  whose 
efforts  in  that  direction  might  be  deemed  commendable,  even 
if  not  crowned  with  success. 

Stimulated  by  the  spirit  of  adventure  and  the  love  of 
science  far  more  than  by  the  hope  of  gaining  a  pecuniary 
prize,  the  undaunted  Barendz,  who  was  firm  in  the  faith  that 
a  pathway  existed  by  the  north  of  Nova  Zembla  and  across 


1596. 


VOYAGE  OF  BARENDZ  AND  VAN  DER  RYP.  ^ 

the  pole  to  farthest  Ind,  determined  to  renew  the  attempt 
the  following  summer.  The  city  of  Amsterdam  accord¬ 
ingly,  early  in  the  year  1596,  fitted  out  two  ships. 

Select  crews  of  entirely  unmarried  men  volunteered  1596' 
for  the  enterprise.  John  Cornelisz  yan  der  Ryp,  an  experienced 
sea-captain,  was  placed  in  charge  of  one  of  the  vessels,  Wil¬ 
liam  Barendz  was  upper  pilot  of  the  other,  and  Heemskerk, 

“the  man  who  ever  steered  his  way  through  ice  or  iron,”1 
was  skipper  and  supercargo. 

The  ships  sailed  from  the  Ylie  on  the  18th  May.  The 
opinions  of  Peter  Plancius  prevailed  in  this  expedition  at 
last;  the  main  object  of  both  Ryp  and  Barendz  being  to 
avoid  the  fatal,  narrow,  ice-clogged  Waigats.  Although 
identical  in  this  determination,  their  views  as  to  the  confi- 
guiation  of  the  land  and  sea,  and  as  to  the  proper  course  to 
be  steered,  were  conflicting.  They  however  sailed  in  company 
mainly  in  a  N.E.  by  N.  direction,  although  Barendz  would 
have  steered  much  more  to  the  east. 

On  the  5  th  June  the  watch  on  deck  saw,  as  they  supj3osed, 
immense  flocks  of  white  swans  swimming  towards  the  ships, 
and  covering  the  sea  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach.  All  hands 
came  up  to  look  at  the  amazing  spectacle,  but  the  more  ex¬ 
perienced  soon  perceived  that  the  myriads  of  swans  were 
simply  infinite  fields  of  ice,  through  which  however  they 
were  able  to  steer  their  course  without  much  impediment 
getting  into  clear  sea  beyond  about  midnight,  at  which  hour 
the  sun  was  one  degree  above  the  horizon. 

Proceeding  northwards  two  days  more  they  were  a^ain 
surrounded  by  ice,  and,  finding  the  “  water  green  as  grass, 
they  believed  themselves  to  be  near  Greenland.”  On  the  9th 
June  they  discovered  an  island  in  latitude,  according  to  their 
observation,  74°  30',  which  seemed  about  five  miles  long.  In 
this  neighbourhood  they  remained  four  days,  having  on  one 
occasion  a  “ great  fight  which  lasted  four  glasses”  with  a  polar 
bear,  and  making  a  desperate  attempt  to  capture  him  in 
order  to  bring  him  as  a  show  to  Holland.  The  effort  not 

1  Inscription  on  his  tombstone. 


VOL.  ITT. — 2  0 


562 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chaf.  XXXVI. 


being  successful,  they  were  obliged  to  take  bis  life  to  save 
their  own  ;  but  in  what  manner  they  intended,  had  they 
secured  him  alive,  to  provide  for  such  a  passenger  in  the  long 
voyage  across  the  North  Pole  to  China,  and  thence  back  to 
Amsterdam,  did  not  appear.  The  attempt  illustrated  the 
calmness,  however,  of  those  hardy  navigators.  They  left 
the  island  on  the  13th  June,  having  baptised  it  Bear  Island 
in  memory  of  their  vanquished  foe,  a  name  which  was  subse¬ 
quently  exchanged  for  the  insipid  appellation  of  Cherry 
Island,  in  honour  of  a  comfortable  London  merchant  who 
seven  years  afterwards  sent  a  ship  to  those  arctic  regions. 

Six  days  later  they  saw  land  again,  took  the  sun,  and 
21  June  found-  their  latitude  80°  IP.  Certainly  no  men  had 

1596.  ever  peen  within  less  than  ten  degrees  of  the  pole 
before.  On  the  longest  day  of  the  year  they  landed  on  this 
newly  discovered  country,  which  they  at  first  fancied  to  be 
a  part  of  Greenland.  They  found  its  surface  covered  with 
eternal  snow,  broken  into  mighty  glaciers,  jagged  with  preci¬ 
pitous  ice-peaks  ;  and  to  this  land  of  almost  perpetual  winter, 
where  the  mercury  freezes  during  ten  months  in  the  year, 
and  where  the  sun  remains  four  months  beneath  the  horizon, 
they  subsequently  gave  the  appropriate  and  vernacular  name 
of  Spitzbergen.  Combats  with  the  sole  denizens  of  these 
hideous  abodes,  the  polar  bears,  on  the  floating  ice,  on  the 
water,  or  on  land,  were  constantly  occurring,  and  were 
the  only  events  to  disturb  the  monotony  of  that  perpetual 
icy  sunshine,  where  no  night  came  to  relieve  the  almost  mad¬ 
dening  glare.  They 'rowed  up  a  wide  inlet  on  the  western 
coast,  and  came  upon  great  numbers  of  wild-geese  sitting  on 
their  eggs.  They  proved  to  be  the  same  geese  that  were  in 
the  habit*  of  visiting  Holland  in  vast  flocks  every  summer, 
and  it  had  never  before  been  discovered  where  they  laid  and 
hatched  their  eggs.  “  Therefore,”  says  the  diarist  of  the  ex¬ 
pedition,  u  some  voyagers  have  not  scrupled  to  state  that  the 
eggs  grow  on  trees  in  Scotland,  and  that  such  of  the  fruits  of 
those  trees  as  fall  into  the  water  become  goslings,  while  those 
which  drop  on  the  ground  burst  in  pieces  and  come  to  nothing. 


1596,  THE  VOYAGERS  TAKE  DIFFERENT  ROUTES.  5£3 

W  (-  row  see  that  (piite  the  contrary  is  the  case,”  continues 
De  Veer,  with  perfect  seriousness,  “  nor  is  it  to  he  wondered 
at,  for  nobody  has  ever  been  until  now  where  those  birds  lay 
their  eggs.  No  man,  so  far  as  known,  ever  reached  the  lati¬ 
tude  of  eighty  degrees  before.  This  land  was  hitherto  un¬ 
known.” 

The  scientific  results  of  this  ever-memorable  voyage  might 
be  deemed  sufficiently  meagre  were  the  fact  that  the  eggs  of 
wild  geese  did  not  grow  on  trees  its  only  recorded  discovery. 
But  the  investigations  made  into  the  dread  mysteries  of  the 
north,  and  the  actual  problems  solved,  were  many,  while 
the  simplicity  of  the  narrator  marks  the  infantine  character 
of  the  epoch  in  regard  to  natural  history.  When  so  illustrious 
a  mind  as  Grotius  was  inclined  to  believe  in  a  race  of  arctic 
men  whose  heads  grew  beneath  their  shoulders,  the  ingenuous 
mariner  of  Amsterdam  may  be  forgiven  for  his  earnestness  in 
combating  the  popular  theory  concerning  goslings. 

On  the  23rd  June  they  went  ashore  again,  and  occupied 
themselves,  as  well  as  the  constant  attacks  of  the  bears  would 
permit,  in  observing  the  variation  of  the  needle,  which  they 
ascertained  to  be  sixteen  degrees.  On  the  same  day,  the  ice 
closing  around  in  almost  infinite  masses,  they  made  haste  to 
extricate  themselves  from  the  land  and  bore  southwards  again, 
making  Bear  Island  once  more  on  the  1st  July.  Here  Corne¬ 
lius.  Byp  parted  company  with  Heemskerk  and  Barendz, 
haying  announced  his  intention  to  sail  northward  again  beyond 
latitude  80°  in  search  of  the  coveted  passage.  Barendz,  re¬ 
taining  his  opinion  that  the  true  inlet  to  the  circumpolar  sea, 
if  it  existed,  would  be  found  N.E.  of  Nova  Zembla,  steered  in 
that  direction.  On  the  13th  July  they  found  themselves  by 
observation  in  latitude  73°,  and  considered  themselves  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Sir  Hugh  Willoughby’s  land.  Four  days 
later  they  were  in  Lomms’  Bay,  a  harbour  of  Nova  Zembla,  so 
called  by  them  from  the  multitude  of  lomms  frequenting’ it, 
a  bird  to  which  they  gave  the  whimsical  name  of  arctic  parrots! 
On  the  20th  July  the  ice  obstructed  their  voyage,  covering 
the  sea  in  all  directions  with  floating  mountains  and  valleys” 


564 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXVI. 


so  that  they  came  to  an  anchor  off  an  islet  where  on  a  former 
voyage  the  Hollanders  had  erected  the  precious  emblem  of 
Christian  faith,  and  baptised  the  dreary  solitude  Cross  Island. 
But  these  pilgrims,  as  they  now  approached  the  spot,  found  no 
worshippers  there,  while,  as  if  in  horrible  mockery  of  their 
piety,  two  enormous  white  bears  had  reared  themselves  in  an 
erect  posture,  in  order  the  better  to  survey  their  visitors, 
directly  at  the  foot  of  the  cross.  The  party  which  had  just 
landed  were  unarmed,  and  were  for  making  off  as  fast  as 
possible  to  their  boats.  But  Skipper  Heemskerk,  feeling  that 
this  would  be  death  to  all  of  them,  said  simply,  “  The  first 
man  that  runs  shall  have  this  boat-hook  of  mine  in  his  hide. 
Let  us  remain  together  and  face  them  off.”  It  wras  done. 
The  party  moved,  slowly  towards  their  boats,  Heemskerk 
bringing  up  the  rear,  and  fairly  staring  the  polar  monsters 
out  of  countenance,  who  remained  grimly  regarding  them, 
and  ramping  about  the  cross. 

The  sailors  got  into  their  boat  with  much  deliberation,  and 
escaped  to  the  ship,  “glad  enough,”  said  He  Yeer,  “that  they 
were  alive  to  tell  the  story,  and  that  they  had  got  out  of  the 
cat-dance  so  fortunately.” 

Next  day  they  took  the  sun,  and  found  their  latitude 
76°  15',  and  the  variation  of  the  needle  twenty-six 
degrees. 

For  seventeen  days  more  they  were  tossing  about  in  mist 
and  raging  snow-storms,  and  amidst  tremendous  icebergs, 
some  of  them  rising  in  steeples  and  pinnacles  to  a  hundred 
feet  above  the  sea,  some  grounded  and  stationary,  others 
drifting  fearfully  around  in  all  directions,  threatening  to 
crush  them  at  any  moment,  or  to  close  in  about  them  and 
imprison  them  for  ever.  They  made  fast  by  their  bower 
anchor  on  the  evening  of  7tli  August  to  a  vast  ice¬ 
berg  which  was  aground,  but  just  as  they  had  eaten 
their  supper  there  was  a  horrible  groaning,  bursting,  and 
shrieking  all  around  them,  an  indefinite  succession  of  awful 
sounds  which  made  their  hair  stand  on  end,  and  then  the 
iceberg  split  beneath  the  water  into  more  than  four  hundred 


21  July. 


7  August. 


1598. 


AMONG  THE  ICEBERGS. 


565 


pieces  with  a  crash  “  such  as  no  words  could  describe”  They 
escaped  any  serious  damage,  and  made  their  way  to  a  vast 
steepled  and  towered  block  like  a  floating  cathedral,  where 
they  again  came  to  anchor. 

On  the  15th  August  they  reached  the  isles  of  Orange,  on 
the  extreme  north-eastern  verge  of  Nova  Zembla.  Here  a 
party  going  ashore  climbed  to  the  top  of  a  rising  ground,  and 
to  theii  infinite  delight  beheld  an  open  sea  entirely  free 
fiom  ice,  stretching  to  the  S.  E.  and  E.S.E.  as  far  as  eye  could 
reach.  At  last  the  game  was  won,  the  passage  to  Cathay 
was  discovered.  Full  of  joy,  they  pulled  back  in  their  boat  to 
the  ship,  “not  knowing  how  to  get  there  quick  enough  to  tell 
William  Barendz,”  Alas  !  they  were  not  aware  of  the  action 
of  that  mighty  ocean  river,  the  Gulf-stream,  which  was 
sweeping  around  those  regions  with  its  warm  dissolving 
current. 

Three  days  later  they  returned  baffled  in  their  sanguine 
efforts  to  sail  through  the  open  sea.  The  ice  had 
returned  upon  them,  setting  southwardly  in  obedience  18  August* 
to  the  same  impulse  which  for  a  moment  had  driven  it  away,  and 
they  found  themselves  imprisoned  again  near  the  “  Hook  of 
Desire.” 


On  the  25th  August  they  had  given  up  all  the  high  hopes 
by  which  they  had  been  so  lately  inspired,  and,  as 
the  stream  was  again  driving  the  ice  from  the  land,  23  A,,=ust- 
they  trusted  to  sail  southward  and  westward  bach  towards 
the  Waigats.  Having  passed  by  Nova  Zembla,  and  found  no 
opening  .into  the  seas  beyond,  they  were  disposed  in  the 
rapidly  waning  summer  to  effect  their  retreat  by  the  south 
side  of  the  island,  and  so  through  the  Straits  of  Nassau  home. 
In  vain.  The  catastrophe  wasupon  them.  As  they  struggled 
slowly  past  the  “Ice-haven,”  the  floating  mountains  and 
glaciers,  impelled  by  the  mighty  current,  once  more  gathered 
around  and  forced  them  back  to  that  horrible  harbour. 
During  the  remaining  days  of  August  the  ship  struggled' 
almost  like  a  living  creature,  with  the  perils  that  beset  her  ; 
now  rearing  in  the  air,  her  bows  propped  upon  mighty  blocks’ 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXVI. 


566 


till  *  she  absolutely  sat  erect  upon  her  stern,  now  lying 
prostrate  on  her  side,  and  anon  righting  again  as  the  ice- 
masses  would  for  a  moment  float  away  and  leave  her  breath¬ 
ing  space  and  room  to  move  in.  A  blinding  snow-storm 
was  raging  the  while,  the  ice  was  cracking  and  groaning 
in  all  directions,  and  the  ship  was  shrieking,  so  that  the 
medley  of  awful  sights  and  sounds  was  beyond  the  power  of 
language.  ei  ’Twas  enough  to  make  the  hair  stand  on  end,” 
said  Gerrit  de  Yeer,  u  to  witness  the  hideous  spectacle.” 

But  the  agony  was  soon  over.  By  the  1st  September  the 
1  Sept,  ship  was  hard  and  fast.  The  ice  was  as  immove- 
1596.  able  as  phe  c|ry  land,  and  she  would  not  move  again 
that  year  even  if  she  ever  floated.  Those  pilgrims  from  the 
little  republic  were  to  spend  the  winter  in  their  arctic  harbour. 
Resigning  themselves  without  a  murmur  to  their  inevitable 
fate,  they  set  about  th^ir  arrangements  with  perfect  good 
humour  and  discipline.  Most  fortunately  a  great  quantity  of 
drift  wood,  masses  of  timber,  and  great  trees  torn  away  with 
their  roots  from  distant  shores,  lay  strewn  along  the  coast, 
swept  thither  by  the  wandering  currents.  At  once  they 
resolved  to  build  a  house  in  which  they  might  shelter  them¬ 
selves  from  the  wild  beasts,  and  from  their  still  more  cruel 
enemy,  the  cold.  So  thanking  God  for  the  providential  and 
unexpected  supply  of  building  material  and  fuel,  they  lost  no 
time  in  making  sheds,  in  hauling  timber,  and  in  dragging 
supplies  from  the  ship  before  the  dayless  winter  should 
descend  upon  them. 

Six  weeks  of  steady  cheerful  labour  succeeded.  Tremen- 
1  Sept,  to  dous  snow-storms,  accompanied  by  hurricanes  of 
12  Oct.  wind,  often  filled  the  atmosphere  to  suffocation,  so 
that  no  human  being  could  move  a  ship’s  length  without 
perishing  ;  while,  did  any  of  their  number  venture  forth,  as 
the  tempest  subsided,  it  was  often  to  find  himself  almost 
in  the  arms  of  a  polar  bear  before  the  dangerous  snow-white 
form  could  be  distinguished  moving  sluggishly  through  the 
white  chaos. 

F or  those  hungry  companions  never  left  them  so  long  as 


1596. 


LIFE  AT  NOVA  ZEMBLA. 


567 


the  sun  remained  above  the  horizon  swarming,  like  insects 
and  birds  in  tropical  lands.  When  the  sailors  put  their 
meat-tubs  for  a  moment  out  upon  the  ice  a  bear's  intrusive 
muzzle  would  forthwith  be  inserted  to  inspect  the  contents. 
Maddened  by  hunger,  and  their  keen  scent  excited  by  the 
salted  provisions,  and  by  the  living  flesh  and  blood  of  these 
intruders  upon  their  ancient  solitary  domains,  they  would 
often  attempt  to  effect  their  entrance  into  the  ship. 

On  one  such  occasion,  when  Heemskerk  and  two  companions 
were  the  whole  garrison,  the  rest  being  at  a  distance  sledding 
wood,  the  future  hero  of  Gibraltar  was  near  furnishing  a  meal 
to  his  Nova  Zembla  enemies.  It  was  only  by  tossing  sticks 
and  stones  and  marling-spikes  across  the  ice,  which  the  bears 
would  instantly  turn  and  pursue,  like  dogs  at  play  with  chil¬ 
dren,  that  the  assault  could  be  diverted  until  a  fortunate  shot 


was  made. 

Several  were  thus  killed  in  the  course  of  the  winter,  and 
one  in  particular  was  disembowelled  and  set  frozen  upon 
his  legs  near  their  house,  where  he  remained  month  after 
month  with  a  mass  of  snow  and  ice  accumulated  upon  him, 


until  he  had  grown  into  a  fantastic  and  gigantic  apparition, 
still  wearing  the  semblance  of  their  mortal  foe. 

By  the  beginning  of  October  the  weather  became  so 
intensely  cold  that  it  was  almost  impossible  to  work.  The 
carpenter  died  before  the  house  was  half  completed.  To  dig 
a  grave  was  impossible,  but  they  laid  him  in  a  cleft  of  the  ice, 
and  he  was  soon  covered  with  the  snow  Meantime  the 
sixteen  that  were  left  went  on  as  they  best  might  with  their 
task,  and  on  October  2nd  they  had  a  house- raising.  The 
frame-work  was  set  up,  and  in  order  to  comply  with 
the  national  usage  in  such  cases,  they  planted,  instead  of  the 
May-pole  with  its  fluttering  streamers,  a  gigantic  icicle  before 
their  new  residence.  Ten  days  later  they  moved  into  the 
house  and  slept  there  for  the  first  time,  while  a  bear, 
profiting  by  their  absence,  passed  the  night  in  the 
deserted  ship. 

On  the  4th  November  the  sun  rose  no  more,  but  the  moon 


12  Oct. 


568 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXVI. 


at  first  shone  day  and  night,  until  they  were  once  in  great 
perplexity  to  know  whether  it  were  midday  or  midnight.  It 
proved  to  be  exactly  noon.  The  bears  disappeared  with  the 
sun,  but  white  foxes  swarmed  in  their  stead,  and  all  day  and 
night  were  heard  scrambling  over  their  roof.  These  were 
caught  daily  in  traps  and  furnished  them  food,  besides  furs 
for  raiment.  The  cold  became  appalling,  and  they  looked  in 
each  other's  faces  sometimes  in  speechless  amazement.  It  was 
obvious  that  the  extreme  limit  of  human  endurance  had  been 
reached.  Their  clothes  were  frozen  stiff.  Their  shoes  were 
like  iron,  so  that  they  were  obliged  to  array  themselves  from 
head  to  foot  in  the  skins  of  the  wild  foxes.  The  clocks 
stopped.  The  beer  became  solid.  The  Spanish  wine  froze 
and  had  to  be  melted  in  saucepans.  The  smoke  in  the  house 
blinded  them.  Fire  did  not  warm  them,  and  their  garments 
were  often  in  a  blaze  while  their  bodies  were  half  frozen. 
All  through  the  month  of  December  an  almost  perpetual 
snow-deluge  fell  from  the  clouds.  For  days  together  they 
were  unable  to  emerge,  and  it  was  then  only  by  most  vigorous 
labour  that  they  could  succeed  in  digging  a  passage  out  of 
their  buried  house.  On  the  night  of  the  7th  December 
sudden  death  had  nearly  put  an  end  to  the  sufferings  of  the 
whole  party.  Having  brought  a  quantity  of  seacoal  from 
the  ship,  they  had  made  a  great  fire,  and  after  the  smoke  was 
exhausted,  they  had  stopped  uj3  the  chimney  and  every 
crevice  of  the  house.  Each  man  then  turned  into  his  bunk 
for  the  night,  “all  rejoicing  much  in  the  warmth  and  prat¬ 
tling  a  long  time  with  each  other."  At  last  an  unaccustomed 
giddiness  and  faintness  came  over  them,  of  which  they  could 
not  guess  the  cause,  but  fortunately  one  of  the  party  had  the 
instinct,  before  he  lost  consciousness,  to  open  the  chimney, 
while  another  forced  open  the  door  and  fell  in  a  swoon  upon 
the  snow.  Their  dread  enemy  thus  came  to  their  relief,  and 
saved  their  lives. 

As  the  year  drew  to  a  close,  the  frost  and  the  perpetual 
snow-tempest  became,  if  that  were  possible,  still  more  fright¬ 
ful.  Their  Christmas  was  not  a  merry  one,  and  for  the  first 


1597.  TWELFTH-NIGHT  IN  THE  NORTHERN  REGIONS.  559 

few  days  of  the  new  year,  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  move 
fiom  the  house.  On  the  25th  January,  the  snow-storms 
having  somewhat  abated,  they  once  more  dug  themselves  as 
it  were  out  of  their  living  grave,  and  spent  the  whole  day  in 
hauling  wood  from  the  shore.  As  their  hour-glasses  informed 
them  that  night  was  approaching,  they  bethought  themselves 
that  it  was  Twelfth  Night,  or  Three  Kings'  Eve.  So  they  all 
respectfully  proposed  to  Skipper  Heeinskerk,  that,  in  the 
midst .  of  their  sorrow  they  might  for  once  have  a  little 
divcision.  A  twelfth-night  feast  was  forthwith  ordained.  A 
scanty  portion  of  the  wine  yet  remaining  to  them  was  pro¬ 
duced.  Two  pounds  weight  of  flour,  which  they  had  brought 
to  make  paste  with  for  cartridges,  was  baked  into  pancakes 
with  a  little  oil,  and  a  single  hard  biscuit  was  served  out  to 
each  man  to  be.  sopped  in  his  meagre  allowance  of  wine. 
aWe  were  as  happy,"  said  GerrK  de  Yeer,  with  simple 
pathos,  “  as  if  we  were  having  a  splendid  banquet  at  home. 
We  imagined  ourselves  in  the  fatherland  with  all  our  friends, 
so  much  did  we  enjoy  our  repast." 

That  nothing  might  be  omitted,  lots  were  drawn  for  king, 
and  the  choice  fell  on  the  gunner,  who  was  forthwith  pro¬ 
claimed  monarch  of  Nova  Zembla.  Certainly  no  men  could 
have  exhibited  more  undaunted  cheerfulness  amid  bears  and 
foxes,  icebeigs  and  cold  such  as  Christians  had  never  con¬ 
ceived  of  before  than  did  these  early  arctic  pilgrims.  Nor 
did  Barendz  neglect  any  opportunity  of  studying  the  heavens. 
A  meridian  was  drawn  near  the  house,  on  which  the  compass 
was  placed,  and  observations  of  various  stars  were  constantly 
made,  despite  the  cold,  with  extraordinary  minuteness.  The 
latitude,  from  concurrent  measurement  of  the  Giant,  the  Bull 
Orion,  Aldebaran,  and  other  constellations— in  the  absence 
of  the  sun — was  ascertained  to  be  a  little  above  seventy-six 
degiees,  and  the  variations  of  the  needle  were  accurately 
•  noted. 

On  the  24th  January  it  was  clear  weather  and  compara¬ 
tively  mild,  so  that  Heemskerk,  with  De  Yeer  and  another, 
walked  to  the  strand.  To  their  infinite  delight  and  surprise 


570 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXVI. 


they  again  saw  the  disk  of  the  sun  on  the  edge  of  the  horizon, 
and  they  all  hastened  hack  with  the  glad  tidings.  But 
Barendz  shook  his  head.  Many  days  must  elapse,  he  said, 
before  the  declination  of  the  sun  should  be  once  more  14°, 
at  which  point  in  the  latitude  of  76°  they  had  lost  sight 
of  the  luminary  on  the  4th  November,  and  at  which  only 
it  could  again  be  visible.  This,  according  to  his  calcula¬ 
tions,  would  be  on  the  10th  February.  Two  days  of  rnirky 
and  stormy  atmosphere  succeeded,  and  those  who  had 
wagered  in  support  of  the  opinion  of  Barendz  were  in¬ 
clined  to  triumph  over  those  who  believed  in  the  observa¬ 
tion  of  Heemskerk.  On  the  27th  January  there  was, 
however,  no  mistake.  The  sky  was  bright,  and  the  whole 
disk  of  the  sun.  was  most  distinctly  seen  by  all,  although 
none  were  able  to  explain  the  phenomenon,  and  Barendz 
least  of  all.  They  had  kept  accurate  diaries  ever  since 
their  imprisonment,  and  although  the  clocks  sometimes  had 
stojrped,  the  hour-glasses  had  regularly  noted  the'  lapse  of 
time.  Moreover,  Barendz  knew  from  the  Ephemerides  for 
1589  to  1600,  published  by  Dr.  Joseph  Scala  in  Venice,  a 
copy  of  which  work  he  had  brought  with  him,  that  on  the 
24th  J anuary,  1597,  the  moon  would  be  seen  at  one  o’clock 
a.m.  at  Venice,  in  conjunction  with  Jupiter.  He  accordingly 
took  as  good  an  observation  as  could  be  done  with  the  naked 
eye  and  found  that  conjunction  at  six  o’clock  a.m.  of  the 
same  day,  the  two  bodies  appearing  in  the  same  vertical  line 
in  the  sign  of  Taurus.  The  date  was  thus  satisfactorily 
established,  and  a  calculation  of  the  longitude  of  the  house 
was  deduced  with  an  accuracy  which  in  those  circumstances 
was  certainly  commendable.  Nevertheless,  as  the  facts  and 
the  theory  of  refraction  were  not  thoroughly  understood,  nor 
Tycho  Brahe’s  tables  of  refraction  generally  known,  pilot 
Barendz  could  not  be  expected  to  be  wiser  than  his  gene¬ 
ration. 

The  startling  discovery  that  in  the  latitude  of  76°  the  sun 
re-appeared  on  the  24th  January,  instead  of  the  10th  February,  ‘ 
was  destined  to  awaken  commotion  throughout  the  whole 


1597.  SOLAR  PHENOMENON.  57^ 

scientific  world,  and  lias  perhaps  hardly  yet  been  completely 
explained. 

But  the  daylight  brought  no  mitigation  of  their  sufferings. 
The  merciless  cold  continued  without  abatement,  and  the 
sun  seemed  to  mock  their  misery.  The  foxes  disappeared, 
and  the  ice-bears  in  their  stead  swarmed  around  the  house, 
and  clambered  at  night  over  the  roof.  Again  they  constantly 
fought  with  them  for  their  lives.  Daily  the  grave  question 
was  renewed  whether  the  men  should  feed  on  the  hears  or 
the  hears  on  the  men.  On  one  occasion  their  dead  enemy 
proved  more  dangerous  to  them  than  in  life,  for  three  of  their 
number,  who  had  fed  on  hearts  liver,  were  nearly  jjoisoned  to 
death.  Had  they  perished,  none  of  the  whole  party  would 
have  ever  left  Nova  Zembla.  “It  seemed,”  said  the  diarist, 
u  that  beasts  had  smelt  out  that  we  meant  to  go  away, 
and  had  just  begun  to  have  a  taste  for  us.” 

And  thus  the  days  wore  on.  The  hour-glass  and  the 
almanac  told  them  that  winter  had  given  place  to  spring,  but 
nature  still  lay  m  cold  obstruction.  One  of  their  number, 
who  had  long  been  ill,  died.  They  hollowed  a  grave  for  him 
m  the  frozen  snow,  performing  a  rude  burial  service,  and 
singing  a  psalm ;  but  the  cold  had  nearly  made  them  all 
corpses  before  the  ceremony  was  done. 

At  last,  on  the  17tli  April,  some  of  them  climbing  over  the 
icebeigs  to  the  shore  found  much  open  sea.  They  also  saw 
a  small  bird  diving  in  the  water,  and  looked  upon  it  as  a 
halcyon  and  haibinger  of  better  fortunes.  The  open  weather 
continuing,  they  began  to  hanker  for  the  fatherland.  So  they 
brought  the  matter,  “  not  mutinously  but  modestly  and  reason¬ 
ably,  before  William  Barendz,  that  he  might  suggest  it  to 
Heemskerk,  for  they  were  all  willing  to  submit  to  his  better 
judgment.”  It  was  determined  to  wait  through  the  month  of 
May.  Should  they  then  be  obliged  to  abandon  the  ship  they 
were  to  make  the  voyage  in  the  two  open  boats,  which  had 
been  caiefully  stowed  away  beneath  the  snow.  It  was  soon 
obvious  that  the  ship  was  hard  and  fast,  and  that  she  would 
never  float  again,  except  perhaps  as  a  portion  of  the  icebergs 


572 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXVI. 


in  which  she  had  so  long  been  imbedded,  when  they  should 
be  swept  off  from  the  shore. 

As  they  now  set  to  work  repairing  and  making  ready  the 
frail  skiffs  which  were  now  their  only  hope,  and  supplying 
them  with  provisions  and  even  with  merchandize  from  the 
ship,  the  ravages  made  by  the  terrible  winter  upon  the  strength 
of  the  men  became  painfully  apparent.  But  Heemskerk  en¬ 
couraged  them  to  persevere  ;  “  for/'  said  he,  “  if  the  boats  are 
not  got  soon  under  way  we  must  be  content  to  make  our 
graves  here  as  burghers  of  Nova  Zembla." 

On  the  14th  June  they  launched  the  boats,  and  “  trusting 
themselves  to  God,"  embarked  once  more  upon  the  arctic 
sea.  Barendz,  who  was  too  ill  to  walk,  together  with  Claas 
Anderson,  also  sick  unto  death,  were  dragged  to  the  strand 
in  sleds,  and  tenderly  placed  on  board. 

Barendz  had,  however,  despite  his  illness,  drawn  up  a 
triple  record  of  their  voyage  ;  one  copy  being  fastened  to  the 
chimney  of  their  deserted  house,  and  one  being  placed  in  each 
of  the  boats.  Their  voyage  was  full*  of  danger  as  they  slowly 
retraced  their  way  along  the  track  by  which  they  reached 
the  memorable  Ice  Haven,  once  more  doubling  the  Cape  of 
Desire  and  heading  for  the  Point  of  Consolation — landmarks 
on  their  desolate  progress,  whose  nomenclature  suggests  the 
immortal  apologue  so  familiar  to  Anglo-Saxon  ears. 

Off  the  Ice-hook,  both  boats  came  alongside  each  other, 
16  June  anC^  dipper  Heemskerk  called’  out  to  William 
Barendz  to  ask  how  it  was  with  him. 

“  All  right,  mate,"  replied  Barendz,  cheerfully  ;  u  I  hope  to 
be  on  my  legs  again  before  we  reach  the  Ward-huis."  Then 
he  begged  De  Yeer  to  lift  him  up,  that  he  might  look  upon 
the  Ice-hook  once  more.  The  icebergs  crowded  around 
them,  drifting  this  way  and  that,  impelled  by  mighty  currents 
and  tossing  on  an  agitated  sea.  There  was  “a  hideous 
groaning  and  bursting  and  driving  of  the  ice,  and  it  seemed 
every  moment  as  if  the  boats  were  to  be  dashed  into  a  hun¬ 
dred  pieces."  It  was  plain  that  their  voyage  would  now  be 
finished  for  ever,  were  it  not  possible  for  some  one  of  their 


/ 


1597. 


DEATH  OF  WILLIAM  BARENDZ.  573 

number  to  get  upon  the  solid  ice  beyond  and  make  fast  a  line 
“  But  who  is  to  hell  the  cat  ?  "  said  Gerrit  de  Vere,  who  soon 
however,  volunteered  himself,  being  the  lightest  of  all 
Leaping  from  one  floating  block  to  another  at  the  imminent 
risk  of  being  swept  off  into  space,  he  at  last  reached  a  sta¬ 
tionary  island,  and  fastened  his  rope.  Thus  they  warped 
themselves  once  more  into  the  open  sea. 

On  the  20th  June  William  Barendz  lay  in  the  boat  study¬ 
ing  carefully  the  charts  which  they  had  made  of  the  2o  Jane 
land  and  ocean  discovered  in  their  voyage.  Tossing  1597™6' 
about  in  an  open  skiff  upon  a  polar  sea,  too  weak°to  sit  up¬ 
right,  reduced  by  the  unexampled  sufferings  of  that  horrible 
winter  almost  to  a  shadow,  he  still  preserved  his  cheerful¬ 
ness,  and  maintained  that  he  would  yet,  with  God’s  help 
perform  his  destined  task.  In  his  next  attempt  he  would 

steer  north-east  from  the  North  Cape,  he  said,  and  so  discover 
the  passage. 

While  he  was  “  thus  prattling,”  the  boatswain  of  the  other 

boat  came  on  board,  and  said  that  Claas  Anderson  would 
hold  out  but  little  longer. 

“  Then,”  said  William  Barendz,  “methinks  I  too  shall  last 
but  a  little  while.  Gerrit,  give  me  to  drink.”  When  he  had 

drunk,  he  turned  his  eyes  on  De  Yeer  and  suddenly  breathed 
his  last. 

Great  was  the  dismay  of  his  companions,  for  they  had  been 
deceived  by  the  dauntless  energy  of  the  man,  thus  holding 
tenaciously  to  his  great  purpose,  unbaffled  by  danger  and 
disappointment,  even  to  the  last  instant  of  life.  He  was  their 
chief  pilot  and  guide,  ((  in  whom  next  to  God  they  trusted.” 

And  thus  the  hero,  who  for  vivid  intelligence,  courage,  and 
perseverance  amid  every  obstacle,  is  fit  to  be  classed  among 
the  noblest  of  maritime  adventurers,  had  ended  his  careen 
Nor  was  it  unmeet  that  the  man  who  had  led  those  three 
great  although  unsuccessful  enterprises  towards  the  North 
Pole,  should  be  laid  at  last  to  rest — like  the  soldier  dyin^*  in 
a  lost  battle — upon  the  field  of  his  glorious  labours. 

Neaily  six  weeks  longer  they  struggled  amid  tempestuous 


574 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


CnAP.  XXXVI. 


seas.  Hugging  the  shore,  ever  in  danger  of  being  dashed  to 
atoms  by  the  ice,  pursued  by  their  never-failing  enemies  the 
bears,  and  often  sailing  through  enormous  herds  of 
walrusses,  which  at  times  gave  chase  to  the  boats, 
they  at  last  reached  the  Schanshoek  on  the  28th  J uly. 

Here  they  met  with  some  Eussian  fishermen,  who  recog¬ 
nised  Heemskerk  and  He  Yeer,  having  seen  them  on  their 
previous  voyage.  Most  refreshing  it  was  to  see  other  human 
faces  again,  after  thirteen  months'  separation  from  mankind, 
while  the  honest  Muscovites  expressed  compassion  for  the 
forlorn  and  emaciated  condition  of  their  former  acquaintance. 
Furnished  by  them  with  food  and  wine,  the  Hollanders  sailed 
in  company  with  the  Eussians  as  far  as  the  Waigats. 

On  the  18th  August  they  made  Candenoes,  at  the  mouth  of 
the  White  Sea,  and  doubling  that  cape  stood  boldly  across 
the  gulf  for  Kildin.  Landing  on  the  coast  they  were  informed 
by  the  Laps  that  there  were  vessels  from  Holland  at  Kola. 

On  the  25th  August  one  of  the  party,  guided  by  a  Lap, 

set  forth  on  foot  for  that  place.  Four  days  later  the 
25  Auo*.  .  x. 

guide  was  seen  returning  without  their  comrade  ;  but 

their  natural  suspicion  was  at  once  disarmed  as  the  good- 

humoured  savage  straightway  produced  a  letter  which  he 

handed  to  Heemskerk. 

Breaking  the  seal,  the  skipper  found  that  his  correspondent 
expressed  great  surprise  at  the  arrival  of  the 'voyagers,  as  he 
he  had  supposed  them  all  to  be  long  since  dead.  Therefore  he 
was  the  more  delighted  with  their  coming,  and  promised  to  be 
with  them  soon,  bringing  with  him  plenty  of  food  and  drink. 

The  letter  was  ^igned — 

“  By  me,  Jan  Cornelisz  Eyp.” 

The  occurrence  was  certainly  dramatic,  but,  as  one  might 
think,  sufficiently  void  of  mystery.  Yet,  astonishing  to  relate, 
they  all  fell  to  pondering  who  this  J ohn  Eyp  might  be  who 
seemed  so  friendly  and  sympathetic.  It  was  shrewdly  sug¬ 
gested  by  some  that  it  might  perhaps  be  the  sea-captain  who 
had  parted  company  with  them  off  Bear  Island  fourteen 


1597. 


RETURN  TO  FATHERLAND. 


575 


months  before  in  order  to  sail  north  by  way  of  Spitzbergen. 
As  his  Christian  name  and  surname  were  signed  in  full  to  the 
letter,  the  conception  did  not  seem  entirely  unnatural,  yet  it 
was  rejected  on  the  ground  that  they  had  far  more  reasons 
to  believe  that  he  had  perished  than  he  for  accepting  their 
deaths  as  certain.  One  might  imagine  it  to  have  been  an 
every  day  occurrence  for  Hollanders  to  receive  letters  by  a 
Lapland  penny  postman  in  those  desolate  regions.  At  last 
Heemskeik  bethought  himself  that  among  his  papers  were 
several  letters  from  their  old  comrade,  and,  on  comparison, 
the  handwriting  was  found  the  same  as  that  of  the  epistle 
just  received.  This  deliberate  avoidance  of  any  hasty  jumping 
at  conclusions  certainly  inspires  confidence  in  the  general 
accuracy  of  the  adventurers,  and  we  have  the  better  right  to 
believe  that  on  the  24th  January  the  sun's  disk  was  really 
seen  by  them  in  the  ice  harbour— a  fact  long  disputed  by  the 
learned  world — when  the  careful  weighing  of  evidence  on  the 
less  important  matter  of  Ryp's  letter  is  taken  into  account. 

Meantime  while  they  were  slowly  admitting  the  identity  of 
their  friend  and  correspondent,  honest  John  Cornelius  Ryp 
himself  arrived — no  fantastic  fly-away  Hollander,  but  in  full 

flesh  and  blood,  laden  with  provisions,  and  greeting  them 
heartily. 

#  He  not  pursued  his  Spitzbergen  researches  of  the  pre- 
►  vious  yeai,  but  he  was  now  on  a  trading  voyage  in  a  stout 
vessel,  and  he  conveyed  them  all  by  way  of  the  Ward-huis 
where  he  took  in  a  cargo,  back  to  the  fatherland. 

They  dropped  anchor  in  the  Meuse  on  the  29th  October, 
and  on  the  1st  November  arrived  at  Amsterdam.  Here 
attired  in  their  robes  and  caps  of  white  fox-skin  which  they 
had  worn  while  citizens  of  Nova  Zembla,  they  were  straight¬ 
way  brought  before  the  magistrates  to  give  an  account  of 
their  adventures. 

They  had  been  absent  seventeen  months,  they  had  spent  a 

whole  autumn,  winter,  and  spring — nearly  ten  months _ under 

the  latitude  of  76°  in  a  frozen  desert,  where  no  human  beings 
had  ever  dwelt  before,  and  they  had  penetrated  beyond  80° 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXYI. 


576 


north — a  farther  stride  towards  the  pole  than  had  ever  been 
hazarded.  They  had  made  accurate  geographical,  astrono¬ 
mical,  and  meteorological  observations  of  the  regions  visited. 
They  had  carefully  measured  latitudes  and  longitudes  and 
noted  the  variations  of  the  magnet.  They  had  thoroughly 
mapped  out,  described,  and  designated  every  cape,  island, 
hook,  and  inlet  of  those  undiscovered  countries,  and  more 
than  all,  they  had  given  a  living  example  of  courage,  en¬ 
durance,  patience  under  hardship,  perfect  discipline,  fidelity 
to  duty,  and  trust  in  God,  sufficient  to  inspire  noble  natures 
with  emulation  so  long  as  history  can  read  moral  lessons  to 
mankind. 

No  farther  attempt  was  made  to  discover  the  north-eastern 
passage.  The  enthusiasm  of  Barendz  had  died  with  him, 
and  it  may  he  said  that  the  stern  negation  by  which  this 
supreme  attempt  to  solve  the  mystery  of  the  pole  was  met 
was  its  best  practical  result.  Certainly  all  visions  of  a  cir¬ 
cumpolar  sea  blessed  with  a  gentle  atmosphere  and  eternal 
tranquillity,  and  offering  a  smooth  and  easy  passage  for  the 
world’s  commerce  between  Europe  and  Asia,  had  been  for 
ever  dispelled. 

The  memorable  enterprise  of  Barendz  and  Heemskerk  has 
been  thought  worthy  of  a  minute  description  because  it  was 
•a  voyage  of  discovery,  and  because,  however  barren  of  imme¬ 
diate  practical  results  it  may  seem  to  superficial  eyes,  it 
forms  a  great  landmark  in  the  history  of  human  progress 
and  the  advancement  of  science. 

Contemporaneously  with  these  voyages  towards  the  North 
Pole,  the  enlightened  magistrates  of  the  Netlierland  munici¬ 
palities,  aided  by  eminent  private  citizens,  fitted  out  expedi¬ 
tions  in  the  opposite  direction.  It  was  determined  to  mea¬ 
sure  strength  with  the  lord  of  the  land  and  seas,  the  great 
potentate  against  whom  these  republicans  had  been  so  long 
in  rebellion,  in  every  known  region  of  the  globe.  Both  from 
the  newly  discovered  western  world,  and  from  the  ancient 
abodes  of  oriental  civilization,  Spanish  monopoly  had  long 
been  furnishing  the  treasure  to  support  Spanish  tyranny, 


EXPEDITION  TO  THE  SOUTH  POLE.  577 

and  it  was  the  dearest  object  of  Netherland  ambition  to  con¬ 
front  their  enemy  in  both  those  regions,  and  to  clip  both 
those  overshadowing  wings  of  his  commerce  at  once. 

The  intelligence,  enthusiasm,  and  tenacity  in  wrestling 
against  immense  obstacles  manifested  by  the  young  republic 
at  this  great  expanding  era  of  the  world's  history  can  hardly 
be  exaggerated.  It  was  fitting  that  the  little  commonwealth, 
which  was  foremost  among  the  nations  in  its  hatred  of 
tyranny,  its  love  of  maritime  adventure,  and  its  aptitude  for 
foreign  trade,  should  take  the  lead  in  the  great  commercial 
movements  which  characterized  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  and 
the  commencement  of  the  seventeenth  centuries. 

AiVhile  Barendz  and  Heemskerk  were  attempting  to  force 
the  frozen  gates  which  were  then  supposed  to  guard  the 
northern  highway  of  commerce,  fleets  were  fitting  out  in 
Holland  to  storm  the  Southern  Pole,  or  at  least  to  take 
advantage  01  the  pathways  already  opened  by  the  genius  and 
enterprise  of  the  earlier  navigators  of  the  century.  Lin- 
^schoten  had  taught  his  countrymen  the  value  of  the  technical 
details  of  the  Indian  trade  as  then  understood.  The  voyages 
of  the  brothers  Houtmann,  1595-1600,  the  first  Dutch  expe¬ 
ditions  to  reach  the  East  by  doubling  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  weie  undertaken  according  to  his  precepts,  and 
directed  by  the  practical  knowledge  obtained  by  the  Hout- 
manns  during  a  residence  in  Portugal,  but  were  not  signalized 
by  important  discoveries.  They  are  chiefly  memorable  as 
having  laid  the  foundation  of  the  vast  trade  out  of  which  the 
republic  was  to  derive  so  much  material  power,  while  at  the 
same  time  they  mark  the  slight  beginnings  of  that  mighty 
monopoly,  the  Dutch  East  India  Company,  which  was  to 
teach  such  tremendous  lessons  in  commercial  restriction  to  a 
still  more  colossal  English  corporation,  that  mercantile  tyrant 
only  in  our  own  days  overthrown. 

At  the  same  time  and  at  the  other  side  of  the  world  seven 
ships,  fitted  out  from  Holland  by  private  enterprise,  were 
forcing  their  way  to  the  South  Sea  through  the  terrible 
strait  between  Patagonia  and  Fire  Land,  then  supposed  the 
vol.  hi. — 2  P 


578 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXVI. 


only  path  around  the  globe.  For  the  tortuous  mountain 
channel,  filled  with  whirlpools  and  reefs,  and  the  home  of 
perpetual  tempest,  which  had  been  discovered  in  the  early 
part  of  the  century  by  Magellan,  was  deemed  the  sole  opening 
pierced  by  nature  through  the  mighty  southern  circumpolar 
continent.  A  few  years  later  a  daring  Hollander  was  to 
demonstrate  the  futility  of  this  theory,  and  to  give  his  own 
name  to  a  broader  pathway,  while  the  stormy  headland  of 
South  America,  around  which  the  great  current  of  universal 
commerce  was  thenceforth  to  sweep,  was  baptized  by  the 
name  of  the  tranquil  town  in  West  Friesland  where  most  of 
his  ship's  company  were  born. 

Meantime  the  seven  ships  under  command  of-  Jacob  Mahu, 
Simon  de  Cordes,  and  Sebald  de  Weerdt,  were  contending 
with  the  dangers  of  the  older  route.  The  expedition  sailed 
from  Holland  in  June,  1598,  but  already  the  custom  was 
forming  itself  of  directing  those  navigators  of  almost  unknown 
seas  by  explicit  instructions  from  those  who  remained  on 
shore,  and  who  had  never  navigated  the  ocean  at  all.  The 
consequence  on  this  occasion  was  that  the  voyagers  towards 
the  Straits  of  Magellan  spent  a  whole  summer  on  the  coast 
of  Africa,  amid  pestiferous  heats  and  distracting  calms,  and 
G  April,  reached  the  straits  only  in  April  of  the  following 
1599.  year.  Admiral  Mahu  and  a  large  proportion  of  the 
crew  had  meantime  perished  of  fevers  contracted  by  following 
the  course  marked  out  for  them  by  their  employers,  and 
thus  diminished  in  numbers,  half-stripped  of  provisions,  and 
enfeebled  by  the  exhausting  atmosphere  of  the  tropics,  the 
survivors  were  ill  prepared  to  confront  the  antarctic  ordeal 
which  they  were  approaching.  Five  months  longer  the  fleet, 
under  command  of  Admiral  de  Cordes,  who  had  succeeded  to 
the  command,  struggled  in  those  straits,  where,  as  if  in  the 
home  of  iEolus,  all  the  winds  of  heaven  seemed  holding 
revel ;  but  indifference  to  danger,  discipline,  and  devotion  to 
duty  marked  the  conduct  of  the  adventurers,  even  as  those 
qualities  had  just  been  distinguishing  their  countrymen  at 
the  other  pole.  They  gathered  no  gold,  they  conquered  no 


1599. 


THE  ORDER  OF  THE  UNCHAINED  LION. 


5  79 


-mgc  oms,  they  made  few  discoveries,  they  destroyed  no  fleets 
yet  they  were  the  first  pioneers  on  a  path  on  which  thereafter 
were  to  be  many  such  achievements  by  the  republic. 

At  east  one  heroic  incident,  which  marked  their  departure 

from  the  straits,  deserves  to  be  held  in  perpetual  ^ 

brance.  Admiral  de  Cordes  raised  on  the  shore  at  the 

western  mouth  of  the  channel,  a  rude  memorial  with  an 

inscription  that  the  Netherlander  were  the  first  to  effect  this 

dangerous  passage  with  a  fleet  of  heavy  ships  On  the 

following  day,  in  commemoration  of  the  event  },!to  ,  , 

order  of  knighthood.  The  chief  officer  Zte  s  utdro™ 

the  knights-commanders,  and  the  most  deserving  of  the  crew 

wem  the  kmghts-brethren.  The  members  of  the  fratemTtv 
made  solemn  oath  to  De  fWln*  „  i  1  eternity 

other  that  “hv  nn  rln  ;  tS  &enera^  and  to  each 

S  "LX  gei.  n°  neCCSSit3’  n°r  the  fear  of 

Judicial  to  ^  m0VCd  t0  Und^  anything 

prejudicial  to  their  honour,  to  the  welfare  of  the  fatherland 

or  o  ie  success  of  the  enterprise  in  which  they  were 

gaged  i  pledging  themselves  to  stake  their  lives  i/order 

consistently  with  honour,  to  inflict  every  possible  damage  on 

the  hereditary  enemy,  and  to  plant  the  banner  of  Holland  in 

treasures  Swh’  T  K“S  °f  ^  ga*ered  the 

against  the  Netherlands.”  “  “  tUS  P6rpetual 

Thus  was  instituted  on  the  desolate  shores  of  Fire  Land 
the  order  of  Knights  of  the  Unchained  Lion,  with  such  rude 
solemnities  as  were  possible  in  those  solitudes.  The  harbour 
w  ere  the  fleet  was  anchored  was  called  the  Chevaliers’  Bay 
but  it  would  be  in  vain  to  look  on  modem  maps  for  tint 
heroic  appe  lation.  Patagonia  and  Tierra  del  fLo ^  know 
the  honest  knights  of  the  Unchained  Lion  no  more"  yet  to 
an  unsophisticated  mind  no  stately  brotherhood  of  sovereigns 
nd  patricians  seems  more  thoroughly  inspired  with  the  spirit 
of  Christian  chivalry  than  were  those  weather-beaten  adven 

*Tp  tThe  reefs.and  whirlwinds  of  unknown  seas  X 
cold  Patagonian  giants,  Spanish  cruisers,  a  thousand  real  or 
fixbulous  dangers  environed  them.  Their  provisions  were 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXVI. 


580 


already  running  near  exhaustion,  and  tliey  were  feeding  on 
raw  seal-flesh,  on  snails  and  mussels,  and  on  whatever  the 
barren  rocks  and  niggard  seas  would  supply,  to  save  them 
from  absolutely  perishing,  but  they  held  their  resolve  to 
maintain  their  honour  unsullied,  to  be  true  to  each  other 
and  to  the  republic,  and  to  circumnavigate  the  globe  to  seek 
the  proud  enemy  of  their  fatherland  on  every  sea,  and  to  do 
battle  with  him  in  every  corner  of  the  earth.  The  world 
had  already  seen,'  and  was  still  to  see,  how  nobly  Nether- 
landers  could  keep  their  own.  Meantime  disaster  on  disaster 
descended  on  this  unfortunate  expedition.  One  ship  after 
another  melted  away  and  was  seen  no  more.  Of  all  the 
seven,  only  one,  that  of  Sebald  de  Weerdt,  ever  returned  to 
the  shores  of  Holland.  Another  reached  Japan,  and  although 
the  crew  fell  into  hostile  hands,  the  great  trade  with  that 
Oriental  empire  was  begun.  In  a  third — the  Blyde  Bood- 
schaft,  or  Good  News — Dirk  Gerrits  sailed  nearer  the  South 
Pole  than  man  had  ever  been  before,  and  discovered,  as  he 
believed,  a  portion  of  the  southern  continent,  which  he  called, 
with  reason  good,  Gerrifs  Land.  The  name  in  course  of 
time  faded  from  maps  and  charts,  the  existence  of  the  country 
was  disputed,  until  more  than  two  centuries  later  the  accu¬ 
racy  of  the  Dutch  commander  was  recognised.  The  re-dis¬ 
covered  land  however  no  longer  bears  his  name,  but  has  been 
baptized  South  Shetland. 

Thus  before  the  sixteenth  century  had  closed,  the  navi¬ 


gators  of  Holland  had  reached  almost  the  extreme  verge  of 
human  discovery  at  either  pole.2 


2  The  chief  authorities  consulted 
for  the  account  of  these  early  voyages 

£LTC  •— 

Bor,  III.  b.  xxxi.  pp.  866-873,  and 
IV.  b.  xxxiv.  pp.  337-344. 

Begin  ende  Voortgang  van  de  Ve- 
reen.  Nederl.  geoctroyeerde  Oost  Ind. 
Compagnie  (1646)  1  Deel  {passim) 
with  the  Original  Diaries  and  His¬ 
tories,  especially  1-53. 

Grotii  Hist.  lib.  iv.  326,  seqq.  and 
v.  383,  seqq. 

G.  Moll,  Verhandeling  over  eenige 
Vroegere  Zeetogten  der  Nederlanders. 


Amsterdam,  1825,  pp.  14-119,  et 

passim. 

Bennet  en  Van  Wijk,  Verhandeling 
over  de  NederlandscheOntdekkingen, 
Utrecht,  1827,  passim. 

Van  Kampen’s  Gescli.  der  Nied.  I. 
572,  seqq.  Compare  Gescli.  der  Neder¬ 
landers  buiten  Europa,  Harlem,  1831, 
by  the  same  author. 

Le  Petit,  La  Grande  Chronique,  ii. 
651,  seqq.  and  698,  seqq. 

Van  Meteren  also  gives  good  sum¬ 
maries,  especially  in  b.  xxiii. 


1598.  MOVEMENTS  OP  THE  ADMIRAL  OF  ARRAGON.  581 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

Military  Operations  in  tlie  Netherlands  —  Designs  of  tlie  Spanish  Commander 
—  Siege  of  Orsoy  —  Advance  upon  Rheinberg  —  Murder  of  the  Count  of 
Broeck  and  his  garrison  —  Captureof  Rees  and  Emmerich  — Outrages  of  the 
Spanish  soldiers  in  the  peaceful  provinces  —  Inglorious  attempt  to  avenge 
the  hostilities — State  of  trade  in  the  Provinces  —  Naval  expedition  under 
Van  der  Does  —  Arrival  of  Albert  and  Isabella  at  Brussels  —  Military  ope¬ 
rations  of  Prince  Maurice  —  Negotiation  between  London  and  Brussels  — 
Henry’s  determination  to  enact  the  Council  of  Trent  —  His  projected 
marriage —  Queen  Elizabeth  and  Envoy  Caron  —  Peace  proposals  of  Spain 
to  Elizabeth  —  Conferences  at  Gertruydenberg  —  Uncertain  state  of  affairs. 

The  military  operations  in  the  Netherlands  during  the  whole 
year  1598  were  on  a  comparatively  small  scale  and  languidly 
conducted.  The  States  were  exhausted  by  the  demands  made 
upon  the  treasury,  and  baffled  by  the  disingenuous  policy  of 
their  allies.  The  cardinal-archduke,  on  the  other  hand,  was 
occupied  with  the  great  events  of  his  marriage,  of  his  father- 
in-law’s  death,  and  of  his  own  succession  in  conjunction  with 
his  wife  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  provinces. 

In  the  autumn,  however,  the  Admiral  of  Arragon,  who,  as 
has  been  stated,  was  chief  military  commander  during  the 
absence  of  Albert,  collected  an  army  of  twenty-five  thousand 
foot  and  two  thousand  cavalry,  crossed  the  Meuse  at  Roer- 
mond,  and  made  his  appearance  before  a  small  town  called 
Orsoy,  on  the  Rhine.  It  was  his  intention  to  invade  the 
duchies  of  Cleves,  Juliers,  and  Berg,  taking  advantage  of 
the  supposed  madness  of  the  duke,  and  of  the  Spanish  inclina¬ 
tions  of  his  chief  counsellors,  who  constituted  a  kind  of  regency. 
By  obtaining  possession  of  these  important  provinces — wedged 
as  they  were  between  the  territory  of  the  republic,  the 
obedient  Netherlands,  and  Germany — an  excellent  military 
position  would  be  gained  for  making  war  upon  the  rebellious 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXVII. 


582 

districts  from  the  east,  for  crushing  Protestantism  in  the 
duchies,  for  holding  important  passages  of  the  Rhine,  and  for 
circumventing  the  designs  of  the  Protestant  sons-in-law  and 
daughters  of  the  old  Duke  of  Cleves.  Of  course,  it  was  the 
determination  of  Maurice  and  the  States-General  to  frustrate 
these  operations.  German  and  Dutch  Protestantism  gave 
battle  on  this  neutral  ground  to  the  omnipotent  tyranny  of 
the  papacy  and  Spain. 

Unfortunately,  Maurice  had  but  a  very  slender  force  that 
autumn  at  his  command.  Fifteen  hundred  horse  and  six 
thousand  infantry  were  all  his  effective  troops,  and  with  these 
he  took  the  field  to  defend  the  borders  of  the  republic,  and 
to  out-manoeuvre,  so  far  as  it  might  lie  in  his  power,  the 
admiral  with  his  far-reaching  and  entirely  unscrupulous 

designs. 

With  six  thousand  Spanish  veterans,  two  thousand  Italians, 
and  many  Walloon  and  German  regiments  under  Bucquoy, 
Hachincourt,  La  Bourlotte,  Stanley,  and  Frederic  van  den  Berg, 
the  admiral  had  reached  the-  frontiers  of  the  mad  duke’s  terri¬ 
tory.  Orsoy  was  garrisoned  by  a  small  company  of  “cocks’ 
feathers,”  or  country  squires,  and  their  followers. 

Presenting  himself  in  person  before  the  walls  of  the  town, 
with  a  priest  at  his  right  hand  and  a  hangman  holding  a 
bundle  of  halters  at  the  other,  he  desired  to  be 
Sept.  1-8.  informeq  whether  the  governor  would  prefer  to 

surrender  or  to  hang  with  his  whole  ganison.  The  cock- 
feathers  surrendered.1 

The  admiral  garrisoned  and  fortified  Orsoy  as  a  basis  and 
advanced  upon  Rheinberg,  first  surprising  the  Count  of  Broeck 
in  his  castle,  who  was  at  once  murdered  in  cold  blood  with 
his  little  garrison. 

He  took  Burik  on  the  11th  October,  Rheinberg  on  the  15th 
of  the  same  month,  and  compounded  with  Wesel  for  a 
hundred  and  twenty  thousand  florins.  Leaving  garrisons  in 
these  and  a  few  other  captured  places,  he  crossed  the  Lippe, 
came  to  Borhold,  and  ravaged  the  whole  country  side.  His 

1  Meteren,  399-404. 


1598.  OUTRAGES  OF  THE  SPANISH  SOLDIERS.  533 

troops  being  clamorous  for  pay  were  only  too  eager  to  levy 
black -mail  on  this  neutral  territory.  The  submission  of  the 
authorities  to  this  treatment  brought  upon  them  a  reproach 
of  violation  of  neutrality  by  the  States-General ;  the  Govern¬ 
ments  of  Munster  and  of  the  duchies  being  informed  that,  if 
they  aided  and  abetted  the  one  belligerent,  they  must  expect 
to  be  treated  as  enemies  by  the  other.2 

The  admiral  took  Rees  on  the  30th  October,  and  Emmerich 
on  the  2nd  November — two  principal  cities  of  Cleves.  On 
the  8th  November  he  crossed  into  the  territory  of  the  re¬ 
public  and  captured  Deutekom,  after  a  very  short  siege. 
Maurice,  by  precaution,  occupied  Sevenaer  in  Cleves.  The 
prince — whose  difficult  task  was  to  follow  up  and  observe  an 
enemy  by  whom  he  was  outnumbered  nearly  four  to  one,  to 
harass  him  by  skirmishes,  to  make  forays  on  his  communica¬ 
tions,  to  seize  important  points  before  he  could  reach  them, 
to  impose  upon  him  by  an  appearance  of  far  greater  force  than 
the  republican  army  could  actually  boast,  to  protect  the  cities  of 
the  frontier  like  Zutphen,  Lochem,  and  Doesburg,  and  to  pre¬ 
vent  him  from  attempting  an  invasion  of  the  United  Provinces 
in  force,  by  crossing  any  of  the  rivers,  either  in  the  autumn 
or  after  the  winter’s  ice  had  made  them  passable  for  the  Spanish 
army — succeeded  admirably  in  all  his  strategy.  The  admiral 
never  ventured  to  attack  him,  for  fear  of  risking  a  defeat 
of  his  whole  army  by  an  antagonist  whom  he  ought  to  have 
swallowed  at  a  mouthful,  relinquished  all  designs  upon  the 
republic,  passed  into  Munster,  Cleves,  and  Berg,  and  during 
the  whole  horrible  winter  converted  those  peaceful  provinces 
into  a  hell.  No  outrage  which  even  a  Spanish  army  could 
inflict  was  spared  the  miserable  inhabitants.  Cities  and  vil¬ 
lages  were  sacked  and  burned,  the  whole  country  was  placed 
under  the  law  of  black-mail.  The  places  of  worship,  mainly 
Protestant,  were  all  converted  at  a  blow  of  the  sword  into 
Catholic  churches.  Men  were  hanged,  butchered,  tossed  in 
sport  from  the  tops  of  steeples,  burned,  and  buried  alive. 
Women  of  every  rank  were  subjected  by  thousands  to  outrage 

2  Bor,  IV.  482-496.  Meteren,  399,  404. 


584  the  united  Netherlands.  Chap,  xxxvii. 

too  foul  and  too  cruel  for  any  but  fiends  or  Spanish  soldiers 
to  imagine.3 

Such  was  the  lot  of  thousands  of  innocent  men  and  women 
at  the  hands  of  Philip's  soldiers  in  a  country  at  peace  with 
Philip,  at  the  very  moment  when  that  monarch  was  protesting 
with  a  seraphic  smile  on  his  expiring  lips  that  he  had  never 
in  his  whole  life  done  injury  to  a  single  human  being. 

In  vain  did  the  victims  call  aloud  upon  their  sovereign,  the 
Emperor  Rudolph.  The  Spaniards  laughed  the  feeble  imperial 
mandates  to  scorn,  and  spurned  the  word  neutrality.  “  Oh, 
poor  Roman  Empire  !  "  cried  John  Fontanus,  “how  art  thou 
fallen !  Thy  protector  has  become  thy  despoiler,  and,  although 
thy  members  see  this  and  know  it,  they  sleep  through  it  all. 
One  day  they  may  have  a  terrible  awakening  from  their 

slumbers . The  Admiral  of  Arragon  has  entirely 

changed  the  character  of  the  war,  recognizes  no  neutrality, 
saying  that  there  must  be  but  one  God,  one  pope,  and  one 
king,  and  that  they  who  object  to  this  arrangement  must  be 
extirpated  with  fire  and  sword,  let  them  be  where  they 
may."  4 

The  admiral,  at  least,  thoroughly  respected  the  claims  of 
the  dead  Philip  to  universal  monarchy. 

Maurice  gained  as  much  credit  by  the  defensive  strategy 
through  which  he  saved  the  republic  from  the  horrors  thus 
afflicting  its  neighbours,  as  he  had  ever  done  by  his  most 
brilliant  victories.  Queen  Elizabeth  was  enchanted  with  the 
prowess  of  the  prince,  and  with  the  sagacious  administration 
of  those  republican  magistrates  whom  she  never  failed  to 
respect,  even  when  most  inclined  to  quarrel  with  them. 
“  Never  before  was  it  written  or  heard  of,"  said  the  queen, 
“  that  so  great  an  extent  of  country  could  be  defended  with 
so  few  troops,  that  an  invasion  of  so  superior  a  hostile  force 
could  be  prevented,  especially  as  it  appeared  that  all  the 
streams  and  rivers  were  frozen."  This,  she  added,  was 
owing  to  the  wise  and  far-seeing  counsels  of  the  States- 
General,  and  to  the  faithful  diligence  of  their  military  com- 

3  Bor,  Meteren,  ubi  sup.  4  Groen  v.  Prinsterer,  Archives,  I.  407  (2  Ser.) 


1599. 


POLITICAL  CONDITION  OF  THE  STATES. 


585 


mander,  who  now,  as  she  declared,  deserved  the  title  of  the 
first  captain  of  all  Christendom.5 

A  period  of  languor  and  exhaustion  succeeded.  The  armies 
of  the  States  had  dwindled  to  an  effective  force  of  scarcely 
four  or  five  thousand  men,  while  the  new  levies  came  in  hut 
slowly.  The  taxation,  on  the  other  hand,  was  very  severe. 
The  quotas  for  the  provinces  had  risen  to  the  amount  of  five 
million  eight  hundred  thousand  florins  for  the  year  1599, 
against  an  income  of  four  millions  six  hundred  thousand,  and 
this  deficit  went  on  increasing,  notwithstanding  a  new  tax  of 
one-half  per  cent,  on  the  capital  of  all  estates  above  three 
thousand  florins  in  value,  and  another  of  two  and  a  half  per 
•cent,  on  all  sales  of  real  property.6  The  finances  of  the 
obedient  provinces  were  in  a  still  worse  condition,  and  during 
the  absence  of  the  cardinal-archduke  an  almost  universal 
mutiny,  occasioned  by  the  inability  of  the  exchequer  to  pro¬ 
vide  payment  for  the  troops,  established  itself  throughout 
Flanders  and  Brabant.  There  was  much  recrimination  on 
the  subject  of  the  invasion  of  the  Rhenish  duchies,  and  a  war 
of  pamphlets  and  manifestos  between  the  archduke’s  Govern¬ 
ment  and  the  States-General  succeeded  to  those  active  military 
operations  by  which  so  much  misery  had  been  inflicted  on 
the  unfortunate  inhabitants  of  that  border  land.  There  was  a 
slight  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Princes  of  Brunswick,  Hesse, 
and  Brandenburg  to  counteract  and  to  punish  the  hostilities 
of  the  Spanish  troops  committed  upon  German  soil.  An  army 
— very  slowly  organized,  against  the  wishes  of  the  emperor, 
the  bishops,  and  the  Catholic  party — took  the  field,  and  made 
a  feeble  demonstration  upon  Rheinberg  and  upon  Rees  entirely 
without  result  and  then  disbanded  itself  ingloriously.7 

Meantime  the  admiral  had  withdrawn  from  German  terri¬ 
tory,  and  was  amusing  himself  with  a  variety  of  blows  aimed 
at  vital  points  of  the  republic.  An  excursion  into  the  Isle 
of  Bommel  was  not  crowned  with  much  success.  The  assault 
on  the  city  was  repulsed.  The  fortress  of  Crevecoeur  was, 


5  Caron  to  the  States-General.  Van  der  Kemp,  ii.  199.  6  Wao-enaar  ix  39 
1  Wagenaar,  ix.  39-72.  Bor,  IV.  522,  seqq.,  591,  G08.  Meteren,  b.  xxi. 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXVII. 


5S6 


however,  taken,  and  the  fort  of  St.  Andrew  constructed 
in  spite  of  the  attempts  of  the  States  to  frustrate  the  design — 
at  a  point  commanding  the  course  of  both  the  Waal  and  the 
Meuse.  Having  placed  a  considerable  garrison  in  each  of 
those  strongholds,  the  admiral  discontinued  his  labours  and 
went  into  winter-quarters.8 

The  States-General  for  political  reasons  were  urgent  that 
Prince  Maurice  should  undertake  some  important  enterprise, 
but  the  stadholder,  sustained  by  the  opinion  of  his  cousin 
Lewis  William,  resisted  the  pressure.  The  armies  of  the 
Commonwealth  were  still  too  slender  in  numbers  and  too 
widely  scattered  for  active  Service  on  a  large  scale,  and  the 
season  for  active  campaigning  was  wisely  suffered  to  pass 
without  making  any  attempt  of  magnitude  during  the  year. 

The  trade  of  the  provinces,  moreover,  was  very  much  ham¬ 
pered,  and  their  revenues  sadly  diminished  by  the  severe 
prohibitions  which  had  succeeded  to  the  remarkable  induU 
gence  hitherto  accorded  to  foreign  commerce.  Edicts  in  the 
name  of  the  King  of  Spain  and  of  the  Archdukes  Albert  and 
Isabella,  forbidding  all  intercourse  between  the  rebellious  pro¬ 
vinces  and  the  obedient  Netherlands  or  any  of  the  Spanish 
possessions,  were  met  by  countervailing  decrees  of  the  States- 
General.  Free  trade  with  its  enemies  and  with  all  the  world, 
by  means  of  which  the  commonwealth  had  prospered  in  spite 
of  perpetual  war,  was  now  for  a  season  destroyed,  and  the 
immediate  results  were  at  once  visible  in  its  diminished 
resources.  To  employ  a  portion  of  the  maritime  energies  of 
the  Hollanders  and  Zeelanders,  thus  temporarily  deprived  of  a 
sufficient  field,  a  naval  expedition  of  seventy-five  war  vessels 
under  Admiral  van  der  Does  was  fitted  out,  but  met  with 
very  trifling  success.  They  attacked  and  plundered  the 
settlements  and  forts  of  the  Canary  Islands,  inflicted  much 
damage  on  the  inhabitants,  sailed  thence  to  the  Isle  of  St. 
Thomas,  near  the  equator,  where  the  towns  and  villages  were 
sacked  and  burned,  and  where  a  contagious  sickness  broke 
out  in  the  fleet,  sweeping  off  in  a  very  brief  period  a  large 


8  Wagenaar,  Bor,  Meteren,  v.M  sup. 


1599.  DISCONTENT  IN  THE  OBEDIENT  PROVINCES.  587 

proportion  of  the  crew.  The  admiral  himself  fell  a  victim  to 
the  disease  and  was  buried  on  the  island.  The  fleet  put 
to  sea  again  under  Admiral  Storm  van  Wena,  hut  the  sick¬ 
ness  pursued  the  adventurers  on  their  voyage  towards  Brazil, 
one  thousand  of  them  dying  at  sea  in  fifteen  days.  At 
Brazil  they  accomplished  nothing,  and,  on  their  homeward 
voyage,  not  only  the  new  commander  succumbed  to  the  same 
contagion,  hut  the  mortality  continued  to  so  extraordinary  an 
extent  that,  on  the  arrival  of  the  expedition  late  in  the  winter 
in  Holland,  there  were  hut  two  captains  left  alive,  and,  in 
many  of  the  vessels,  not  more  than  six  sound  men  to  each.9 
Nothing  could  he  more  wretched  than  this  termination  of  a 
great  and  expensive  voyage,  which  had  occasioned  such  high 
hopes  throughout  the  provinces  ;  nothing  more  dismal  than 
the  political  atmosphere  which  surrounded  the  republic 
during  the  months  which  immediately  ensued.  It  was 
obvious  to  Barneveld  and  the  other  leading  personages,  in 
whose  hands  was  the  administration  of  affairs,  that  a  great 
military  success  was  absolutely  indispensable,  if  the  treacher¬ 
ous  cry  of  peace,  when  peace  was  really  impossible,  should 
not  become  universal  and  fatal. 

Meantime  affairs  were  not  much  more  cheerful  in  the 
obedient  provinces.  Archduke  Albert  arrived  with  his  bride 
in  the  early  days  of  September,  1599,  at  Brussels,  and  was 
received  with  great  pomp  and  enthusiastic  rejoicings.  "When 
are  pomp  and  enthusiasm  not  to  be  obtained  by  imperial 
personages,  at  brief  notice  and  in  vast  quantities,  if  managers 
understand  their  business  P  After  all,  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  the  theatrical  display  was  as  splendid  as  that  which 
marked  the  beginning  of  the  Ernestian  era.  Schoolmaster 
Houwaerts  had  surpassed  himself  on  that  occasion,  and  was  no 
longer  capable  of  deifying  the  new  sovereign  as  thoroughly 
as  he  had  deified  his  brother. 

Much  real  discontent  followed  close  upon  the  fictitious 
enthusiasm.  The  obedient  provinces  were  poor  and  forlorn, 

9  Bor,  Meteren,  Wagenaar,  ubi  sup.  See  letters  of  Buzanval  in  Vreede, 
passim. 


588 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXVII. 


and  men  murmured  loudly  at  the  enormous  extravagance  of 
their  new  master's  housekeeping.  There  were  one  hundred 
and  fifty  mules,  and  as  many  horses  in  their  sovereign's 
stables,  while  the  expense  of  feeding  the  cooks,  lackeys, 
pages,  and  fine  gentlemen  who  swelled  the  retinue  of  the 
great  household,  was  estimated,  without  wages  or  salaries,  at 
two  thousand  florins  a  day.10  Albert  had  wished  to  be 
called  a  king,11  but  had  been  unable  to  obtain  the  gratifi¬ 
cation  of  his  wish.  He  had  aspired  to  be  emperor,  and 
he  was  at-  least  sufficiently  imperial  in  his  ideas  of  expense.12 
The  murmurers  were  loftily  rebuked  for  their  complaints, 
and  reminded  of.  the  duty  of  obedient  provinces  to  contribute 
at  least  as  much  for  the  defence  of  their  masters  as  the 
rebels  did  in  maintenance  of  their  rebellion.  The  provincial 
estates  were  summoned  accordingly  to  pay  roundly  for  the 
expenses  of  the  war  as  well  as  of  the  court,  and  to  enable  the 
new  sovereigns  to  suppress  the  military  mutiny,  which  amid 
the  enthusiasm  greeting  their  arrival  was  the  one  prominent 
and  formidable  fact. 

•  The  archduke  was  now  thirty-nine  years  of  age,  the 
Infanta  Isabella  six  years  younger.  She  was  esteemed 
majestically  beautiful  by  her  courtiers,  and  Cardinal  Benti- 
voglio,  himself  a  man  of  splendid  intellect,  pronounced  her  a 
woman  of  genius,  who  had  grown  to  be  a  prodigy  of  wisdom, 
under  the  tuition  of  her  father,  the  most  sagacious  statesman 
of  the  age.13  In  attachment  to  the  Koman  faith  and  ritual, 
in  superhuman  loftiness  of  demeanour,  and  in  hatred  of 
heretics,  she  was  at  least  a  worthy  child  of  that  sainted 
sovereign.14  In  a  moral  point  of  view  she  was  his  superior. 
The  archdukes — so  Albert  and  Isabella  were  always  desig¬ 
nated — were  a  singularly  attached  couple,  and  their  house¬ 
hold,  if  extravagant  and  imperial,  was  harmonious.  They 


10  Bor,  IV.  578. 

11  Albert  to  Philip,  20  April,  1598. 
(Arch,  de  Simancas  MS.)  Same  to 
same,  13  July,  1598.  (Ibid.) 

12  Ibid. 

13  Relazione  delle  prove.  ubbte.  57,  58. 

14  “  Die  Infantin  ausz  Ilispanien,” 


wrote  Fontanus,  “weis  nit  dan  von 
hangen,  brennen,  morden  und  written- 
zu  sprechen  ;  man  musz  irer  Majestat 
auff  den  knien  sitzen  dienen,  aucli  die 
Staten  der  Provincien  welches  ilinen 
gar  ungern  thut.” — Groen  v.  Prin- 
sterer,  Archives,  II.  8  (2  Ser.) 


f 


1600. 


RECOVERY  OF  CREVECCEUR  BY  MAURICE. 


589 


1600 A 


loved  each  other — so  it  was  believed — as  sincerely  as  they 
abhorred  heretics  and  rebels,  but  it  does  not  appear  that  they 
had  a  very  warm  affection  for  their  Flemish  subjects.  Every 
characteristic  of  their  court  was  Spanish.  Spanish  costume, 
Spanish  manners,  the  Spanish  tongue,  were  almost  exclu¬ 
sively  predominant,  and  although  the  festivals,  dances, 
banquets,  and  tourneys,  were  all  very  magnificent,  the  pre¬ 
vailing  expression  of  the  Brabantine  capital  resembled  that 
'  of  a  Spanish  convent,15  so  severely  correct,  so  stately,  and  so 
grim,  was  the  demeanour  of  the  court. 

The  earliest  military  operations  of  the  stadholder  in  the  first 
year  of  the  new  century  were  successful.  Partly  by 
menace,  but  more  effectually  by  judicious  negotiation, 

Maurice  recovered  Crevecoeur,  and  obtained  the  surrender  of 
St.  Andrew,  the  fort  which  the  admiral  had  built  the  pre¬ 
ceding  year  in  honour  of  Albert’s  uncle.  That  ecclesiastic, 
\vith  whom  Mendoza  had  wrangled  most  bitterly  during  the 
whole  interval  of  Albert’s  absence,  had  already  taken  his 
departure  for  Borne,  where  he  soon  afterwards  died.15  The 
garrisons  of  the  forts,  being  mostly  Walloon  soldiers,  forsook 
the  Spanish  service  for  that  of  the  States,  and  were  banded 
together  in  a  legion  some  twelve  hundred  strong,  which 
became  known  as  the  “  New  Beggars,”  and  were  placed  under 
the  nominal  command  of  Frederick  Henry  of  Nassau, 
youngest  child  of  William  the  Silent.  The  next  military 
event  of  the  year  was  a  mad  combat,  undertaken  by  formal 
cartel,  between  Breaute,  a  young  Norman  noble  in  the  service 
of  the  republic,  and  twenty  comrades,  with  an  equal  number 
of  Flemish  warriors  from  the  obedient  provinces,  under 
Grobbendonck.  About  one  half  of  the  whole  number  were 
killed,  including  the  leaders,  but  the  encounter,  although 
exciting  much  interest  at  the  time,  had  of  course  no  perma¬ 
nent  importance.17 

There  was  much  negotiation*  informal  and  secret,  between 
Brussels  and  London  during  this  and  a  portion  of  the  follow- 


X 


15  Bentivoglio,  ubi  sup. 
17  Wagenaar,  ix.  39-72. 


16  Wagenaar,  ix.  64. 
Bor,  IV.  522-603.  Meteren,  book  xxi. 


*  \ 


N 


v\ 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXVII. 


590 

ing  year.  Elizabeth,  naturally  enough,  was  weary  of  the 
war,  but  she  felt,  after  all,  as  did  the  Government  of  France, 
that  a  peace  between  the  United  Netherlands  and  Spain 
would  have  for  its  result  the  restoration  of  the  authority  of 
his  most  Catholic  Majesty  over  all  the  provinces.  The  states¬ 
men  of  France  and  England,  like  most  of  the  politicians  of 
Europe,  had  but  slender  belief  in  the  possibility  of  a  popular 
government,  and  doubted  therefore  the  continued  existence 
of  the  newly-organized  republic.18  Therefore  they  really 
deprecated  the  idea  of  a  peace  which  should  include  the 
States,  notwithstanding  that  from  time  to  time  the  queen  or 
some  of  her  counsellors  had  so  vehemently  reproached  the 
Netherlander  with  their  unwillingness  to  negotiate.  “At 
the  first  recognition  that  these  people  should  make  of  the 
mere  shadow  of  a  prince/'  said  Buzanval,  the  keenly  observing 
and  experienced  French  envoy  at  the  Hague,  “  they  lose  the 
form  they  have.  All  the  blood  of  the  body  would  flow  to  the 
head,  and  the  game  would  be  who  should  best  play  the  valet. 

The  house  of  Nassau  would  lose  its  credit  within 
a  month  in  case  of  peace." 19  As  such  statesmen  could  not 
imagine  a  republic,  they  ever  dreaded  the  restoration  in  the 
United  Provinces  of  the  subverted  authority  of  Spain. 

France  and  England  were  jealous  of  each  other,  and  both 
were  jealous  of  Spain.  Therefore  even  if  the  republican 
element,  the  strength  and  endurance  of  which  was  so  little 
suspected,  had  been  as  trifling  a  factor  in  the  problem  as 
was  supposed,  still  it  would  have  been  difficult  for  any  one 
of  these  powers  to  absorb  the  United  Netherlands.  As  for 


18  “  Da  tutte  queste  ragioni  dunque 
si  puo  giudicare  die  non  sia  per  con- 
Servarsi  nello  stato  presente  questa 
nuova  republica  ma  die  piii  tosto  sia 
per  mancare  in  breve  e  die  finalmente 
sia  per  ridursi  sotto  il  governo  d’nn 
solo.” — Bentivoglio,  Relazione  delle 
Provincie  Unite,  lib.  iii.  cap.  vii.  p. 
50.  The  continued  existence  of  the 
££  new  republic”  for  two  centuries  after 
these  remarks  were  made  is  an  addi¬ 
tional  proof  of  the  danger  of  prophesy¬ 
ing.  “  Ceux  qui  sondent  et  connais- 
sent  a  quoy  ce  mene,”  wrote  Aerssens 


from  Paris,  “  desirent  changement  en 
l’estat  du  gouvernement  populaire  et 
election  d’un  souverain.  Combien  peu 
connaissans  nos  necessite,  nos  des- 
seins,  nos  maux !  En  tel  predicament 
sommes  nous  en  cette  cour.”  21  Mars, 
1600.  Lettres,  in  Valck.  (Archives  of 
the  Hague  MS.)  Compare  Instructions 
of  James  I.  to  Spencer  and  Winwood  ; 
Winwood’s  Memorials,  II.  329-335, 
especially  p.  333. 

19  Lettres  et  Negociations  de  Buzan¬ 
val,  par  le  Professeur  Vreede.  Leyde, 
1846,  p.  300. 


1600. 


DESIGNS  OP  THE  KING  OF  FRANcA. 


591 


France,  sue  hardly  coveted  their  possession.  a  We  ought 
not  to  flatter  ourselves/'  said  Buzanval,  “  that  these  maritime 
peoples  will  cast  themselves  one  day  into  onr  nets,  nor  do  I 
know  that  it  would  he  advisable  to  pull  in  the  net  if  they 
should  throw  themselves  in." 20 

Henry  was  full  of  political  schemes  and  dreams  at  this 
moment — as  much  as  his  passion  for  Mademoiselle  d'Entrai- 
gues,  who  had  so  soon  supplanted  the  image  of  the  dead 
Gabrielle  in  his  heart,  would  permit.  He  was  very  well 
disposed  to  obtain  possession  of  the  Spanish  Netherlands,21 
whenever  he  should  see  his  way  to  such  an  acquisition,  and 
was  even  indulging  in  visions  of  the  imperial  crown. 

He  was  therefore  already,  and  for  the  time  at  least,  the 
most  intense  of  papists.22  He  was  determined  to  sacrifice  the 
Huguenot  chiefs,  and  introduce  the  Council  of  Trent,  in 
order,  as  he  told  Du  Plessis,  that  all  might  be  Christians.  If 
he  still  retained  any  remembrance  of  the  ancient  friendship 
between  himself  and  the  heretic  republic,  it  was  not  likely 


20  Lettres,  &c.,  ubi  sup. 

21  Nor  would  it  seem  that  the  pro¬ 
ject,  although  much  feared  by  the 
English  queen,  was  at  all  distaste¬ 
ful  to  the  Netherland  statesmen. 
“  M’ayant  souvent  dit  et  redit  Berne- 
feld,”  wrote  Buzanval,  “  que  si  le  roy 
vouloit  repeter  les  droits  qu’il  pre¬ 
tend  sur  les  dites  provinces  que  les 
Etats  des  Provinces  Unies  luy  ayder- 
oient  pour  un  tel  effet  de  toute  leur 
force,  ne  pretendant  iceux  etats  pour 
tout  butin  que  l’assurance  de  cette 
coste  de  mer,  et  certes  si  cela  etoit,  ils 
pourront  donner  sauvement  et  a  leur 
aise  avec  une  bonne  et  etroite  alliance 
qu’ils  esperoient  faire  avec  la  France 
qui  les  maintiendroit  contre  toute  au¬ 
tre  force  etrangere  de  quelque  coste 
qu’ellc  pent  arriver.  M.  le  P.  Mau¬ 
rice  me  parlant  de  Dunkerque  le  jour 
de  son  partement  je  luy  fis  demande 
s’il  la  pourroit  maintenir  apres  l’avoir 
conquise,  il  me  dit  que  malaisement 
sans  y  tenir  toujours  une  armee.  Je 
le  pressay  davantage  et  jusquesla  qu’il 
vint  a  me  dire  ‘  Je  crois  que  les  etats 
feroient  bien  en  un  tel  cas  de  la  mettre 
en  mains  du  roy je  lui  dis  que  je  i 


ne  pensois  pas  que  nous  voulussions 
rompre  notre  jeusne  pour  si  peu  de 
chose.  Si  faut  il,  dit  il,  ou  que  cette 
ville  nous  mange  ou  que  nous  la  man- 
gions  si  nous  la  tenons  une  fois,”  &c. — 
Buzanval  to  Villeroy,  25  June,  1600. 
(MS.  in  Royal  Library  at  the  Hague.) 

22  “Aussy  sommes  nous  en  temps  icy 
que  les  affaires  se  couvent  et  attendent 
leur  forme  par  le  force.  La  desunion 
de  ceux  de  la  religion  est  projettee,  le 
Concile  de  Trente  en  cette  considera¬ 
tion  en  bon  terme  pour  la  verification, 
le  Sr  du  Plessis  sacrifie  au  pape,  les 
Jesuites  sur  le  retour,  l’empire  promis 
au  roy  et  son  mariage  arrete  pour  le 
mois  de  Septembre.” — Aerssens  to 
Valck,  19  May,  1600,  MS. 

“  Sa  Majeste  ces  jours  passes  dit 
a  bon  escient  a  M.  de  Bouillon  sur  ces 
doleances  pour  l’Assemblee  contre  ces 
forcees  conversions  que  comme  royil 
doit  desirer  qu’une  religion  en  son 
royaume  et  a  M.  du  Plessis  alleguant 
les  inconveniens  du  Concile  (de  Trent) 
sy  faut  il  (fit  il)  qu’enfin  nous  soions 
tous  Chretiens.” — Aerssens  to  Valck, 
10  April,  1600.  (Hague  Archives 
MS.) 


•  the  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXVII. 


592 


to  exhibit  itself,  notwithstanding  his  promises  and  his  pecu¬ 
niary  liabilities  to  her,  in  anything  more  solid  than  words. 
“ I  repeat  it,”  said  the  Dutch  envoy  at  Paris  ;  “this  court 
cares  nothing  for  us,  for  all  its  cabals  tend  to  close  union 
with  Rome,  whence  we  can  expect  nothing  but  foul  weather. 
The  king  alone  has  any  memory  of  our  past  services/' 23  But 
imperturbable  and  self-confident  as  ever,  Henry  troubled 
himself  little  with  fears  in  regard  to  the  papal  supremacy, 
even  when  his  Parliament  professed  great  anxiety  in  regard 
to  the  consequences  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  if  not  under 
him  yet  under  his  successors.  “  I  will  so  bridle  the  popes," 
said  he,  cheerfully,  “  that  they  will  never  pass  my  restrictions. 
My  children  will  be  still  more  virtuous  and  valiant  than  I. 
If  I  have  none,  then  the  devil  take  the  hindmost.  Neverthe¬ 
less  I  choose  that  the  council  shall  be  enacted.  I  desire  it 
more  ardently  than  I  pressed  the  edict  for  the  Protestants. 
Such  being  the  royal  humour  at  the  moment,  it  may  well  be 
believed  that  Duplessis  Mornay  would  find  but  little  sunshine 
from  on  high  on  the  occasion  of  his  famous  but  forgotten 
conferences  with  Du  Perron,  now  archbishop  of  Evreux, 
before  the  king  and  all  the  court  at  Fontainebleau.  It  was 
natural  enough  that  to  please  the  king  the  king’s  old 
Huguenot  friend  should  be  convicted  of  false  citations  from 
the  fathers  ;  but  it  would  seem  strange,  were  the  motives 
unknown,  that  Henry  should  have  been  so  intensely  in¬ 
terested  in  this  most  arid  and  dismal  of  theological  contro¬ 
versies.  Yet  those  who  had  known  and  observed  the 
king  closely  for  thirty  years,  declared  that  he  had  never 
manifested  so  much  passion,  neither  on  the  eve  of  battles  nor 
of  amorous  assignations,  as  he  then  did  for  the  demolition 
of  Duplessis  and  his  deductions.  He  had  promised  the 
Nuncius  that  the  Huguenot  should  be  utterly  confounded, 
and  with  him  the  whole  fraternity,  “for,"  said  the  king, 
“he  has  wickedly  and  impudently  written  against  the  pope, 
to  whom  I  owe  as  much  as  I  do  to  God."  20 


23  Aerssens  to  Valck,  ubi  sup. 

24  Same  to  same,  G  May,  1600. 
(Hague  Archives  MS.)  “  Sauve  qui 


peut,”  &c. 

25  Same  to  same,  9  May,  1G00. 
(Hague  Archives  MS.)  Compare  De 


1600. 


HENRY’S  PROJECTED  MARRIAGE. 


593 


These  were  not  times  in  which  the  Hollanders,  battling  as 
stoutly  against  Spain  and  the  pope  as  they  had  done  during 
the  years  when  the  republic  stood  shoulder  to  shoulder  with 
Henry  the  Huguenot,  could  hope  for  aid  and  comfort  from 
their  ancient  ally. 

It  is  very  characteristic  of  that  age  of  dissimulation  and  of 
reckless  political  gambling,  that  at  the  very  moment  when 
Henry's  marriage  with  Marie  de  Medicis  was  already  arranged, 
and  when  that  princess  was  soon  expected  in  Lyons,  a  cabal 
at  the  king's  court  was  busy  with  absurd  project  to  marry 
their  sovereign  to  the  Infanta  of  Spain.  It  is  true  that  the 
Infanta  was  already  the  wife  of  the  cardinal-archduke,  but 
it  was  thought  possible — for  reasons  divulged  through  the 
indiscretions  or  inventions  of  the  father  confessor — to  obtain 
the  pope's  dispensation  on  the  ground  of  the  nullity  of  the 
marriage.26  Thus  there  were  politicians  at  the  French  court 
seriously  occupied  in  an  attempt  to  deprive  the  archduke  of 
his  wife,  of  his  Netherland  provinces,  and  of  the  crown  of  the 
holy  Roman  empire,27  which  he  still  hoped  to  inherit.28  Yet 


Thou  (who  was  one  of  the  Catholic 
umpires  at  the  conference),  t.  xiii. 
pp.  445-449,  L.  123. 

26  Vous  rirez  si  je  vous  dis,”  wrote 
Aerssens,  minister  of  the  Dutch  Re¬ 
public  in  France,  to  Valcke  “  que  le 
secret  en  est  qu’on  pretend  encor  de 
.  fair  espouser  l’lnfante  d’Espagne  au 
roy,  qui  a  cette  occasion  ne  se  haste 
point  vers  Lyon  et  a  rejette  la  venue 
de  la  Florentine  jusqu’en  Octobre, 
I’obligeant  a  la  compagnie  de  sa  sceur. 
Le  plus  vrai  est  que  le  roy  prend 
ceci  pour  pretext. .  Car  il  pense  totale- 
ment  a  Mlle  d’Antraigues  a  laquelle  il 
a  donne  seconde  promesse  en  cas  de 
masle.  Cependant  ou  a  sceu  de  bonne 
part  que  l’lnfante  ayant  confere  avec 
sa  dame  d’honneur  s’etait  plaint  de 
Pinhabilite  de  l’archiduc  aux  parties 
fondumentalles  du  mariage.  Sur  quoy 
elle  projettait  une  dispense  a  Rome, 
mediation  par  le  roy,  durant  le  sejour 
de  Madame  la  Duchesse  de  Beaufort 
en  ceste  cour,  qui  ne  s’en  est  espargnee 
au  rapport.  Ce  que  j  e  dis  est  vrai  pour 

VOL.  III. — 2  Q 


la  caballe,  mais  j ’ignore  la  verite  du 
faict  et  quand  tout  seroit  ainsi  on 
s’aveugle  trop  au  desir  de  croire  que  le 
Roy  d’Espagne  souffrist  ceste  alli¬ 
ance,  &c.” — Aerssens  to  Valck,  12 
June,  1600.  (Hague  Archives  MS.) 

27  “  Le  Comte  de  Manderscheyd  a 
parleassez  franchement  a  Monsieur  le 
Prince  Maurice,  comme  il  m’a  dit  des 
indispositions  ordinaires  de  la  cervelle 
de  l’Empereur,  du  peu  de  contente- 
ment  que  les  princes  soit  Catholiques 
soit  protestants  commencent  a  avoir  de 
luy  et  du  desir qu’ils  out  de  se  transferer 
Pempire  a  une  autre  maison  que  celle 

de  Autriche . Cela  nous  doit 

faire  un  peu  lever  les  oreilles  en  nous 
rendant  capable  de  grandes  choses.” 
&c. — Buzanval  to  Villeroy,  25  June, 
1600.  (Lettres  de  Buzanval  in  the 
Royal  Library  of  the  Hague  MS.) 

28  “  L’archiduc  ....  qui  touche 
deja  du  doigt  a  l’election  du  Roy  des 
Romains.” — Yreede,  Negociations  de 
Buzanval,  p.  281. 


594 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXVII. 


the  ink  was  scarcely  dry  with  which  Henry  had  signed  the 
treaty  of  amity  with  Madrid  and  Brussels. 

The  Queen  of  England,  on  the  other  hand — although  often 
listening  to  secret  agents  from  Brussels  and  Madrid  who 
olfered  peace,  and  although  perfectly  aware  that  the  great 
object  of  Sjiain  in  securing  peace  with  England  was  to  be 
able  to  swoop  down  at  once  upon  the  republic,  thus  deprived 
of  any  allies — 29  was  beside  herself  with  rage,  whenever  she 
suspected,  with  or  without  reason,  that  Brussels  or  Madrid 
had  been  sending  peace  emissaries  to  the  republic. 

u  Before  I  could  get  into  the  room,”  said  Caron,  on  one 
such  occasion,  u  she  called  out,  ‘  Have  you  not  always  told  me 
that  the  States  never  could,  would,  or  should  treat  for  peace 
with  the  enemy  P  Yet  now  it  is  plain  enough  that  they  have 
proceeded  only  too  far  in  negotiations/  And  she  then  swore  a 
big  oath  that  if  the  States  were  to  deceive  her  she  meant  to 
take  such  vengeance  that  men  should  talk  of  it  for  ever  and 
ever.”  It  was  a  long  time  before  the  envoy  could  induce  her 
to  listen  to  a  single  word,  although  the  perfect  sincerity  of  the 
States  in  their  attitude  to  the  queen  and  to  Spain  was  unques¬ 
tionable,30  and  her  ill-humour  on  the  subject  continued  long 
after  it  had  been  demonstrated  how  much  she  had  been 
deceived. 

Yet  it  was  impossible  in  the  nature  of  things  for  the  States 
to  play  her  false,  even  if  no  reliance  were  to  be  placed  on  their 
sagacity  and  their  honour.  Even  the  recent  naval  expedi¬ 
tion  of  the  republic  against  the  distant  possessions  of  Spain — 
which  in  its  result  had  caused  so  much  disappointment  to  the 
States,  and  cost  them  so  many  lives,  including  that  of  the 
noble  admiral  whom  every  sailor  in  the  Netherlands  adored31 
— had  been  of  immense  advantage  to  England.  The  queen 


29  “  Cette  paix  l’Angleterre  vers 
laquelle  ny  l’Espagne  ny  Bruxelles  ne 
daigneroient  pas  tourner  les  yeux  si  ce 
n’estoit  pour  l’esperance  qu’on  leur 
donne  que  par  cette  ouverture  ils  en- 
treront  dans  ces  Provinces  Unies.” 
—  Buzanval  to  Villeroy,  14  Nov. 
1599.  Vreede,  Negociations  de  Buzan¬ 


val,  p.  315. 

20  Caron  to  the  States,  25  July, 
1600.  (Archives  of  the  Hague  MS.) 

31  “  Van  der  Does  .  .  .  adore  de 
cette  race  de  matelots  comme  un 
saint.” — Negociations  de  Buzanval, 
p.  139. 


1600. 


QUEEN  ELIZABETH  AND  ENVOY  CARON. 


595 


acknowledged  that  the  Dutch  navy  had  averted  the  storm 
which  threatened  to  descend  upon  her  kingdom  out  of  Spain, 
the  Spanish  ships  destined  for  the  coast  of  Ireland  having 
been  dispersed  and  drawn  to  the  other  side  of  the  world  by 
these  demonstrations  of  her  ally.  For  this  she  vowed  that 
she  would  he  eternally  grateful,  and  she  said  as  much  in 
“  letters  full  of  sugar  and  honey ” — according  to  the  French 
envoy — which  she  sent  to  the  States  by  Sir  Francis  Vere.32 
She  protested,  in  short,  that  she  had  been  better  and  more 
promptly  served  in  her  necessities  by  the  Netherlands  than 
by  her  own  subjects.33 

All  this  sugar  and  honey  however  did  not  make  the  mission 
of  Envoy  Edmonds  less  bitter  to  the  States.  They  heard  that 
he  was  going  about  through  half  the  cities  of  the  obedient 
Netherlands  in  a  sort  of  triumphal  procession,  and  it  was  the 
general  opinion  of  the  politicians  and  financiers  of  the  conti¬ 
nent  that  peace  between  Spain  and  England  was  as  good  as 
made.  Naturally  therefore,  notwithstanding  the  exuberant 
expressions  of  gratitude  on  the  part  of  Elizabeth,  the  repub¬ 
lican  Government  were  anxious  to  know  what  all  this  parleying 
meant.  They  could  not  believe  that  people  would  make  a 
raree-show  of  the  English  envoy  except  for  sufficient  reason.34 
Caron  accordingly  presented  himself  before  the  26  Jan. 
queen,  with  respectful  inquiries  on  the  subject.  He  1600* 
found  her  in  appearance  very  angry,  not  with  him,  but  with 
Edmonds,  from  whom  she  had  received  no  advices.  “  I  don’t 
know  what  they  are  doing  with  him,”  said  her  Majesty,  u  I 
hear  from  others  that  they  are  ringing  the  church  bells  wher¬ 
ever  he  goes,  and  that  they  have  carried  him  through  a  great 


32  Negotiations  de.  Buzanval,  pp. 
331,  332. 

33  Ibid.  “  Av ant  icenlx  navires 
pris  l’isle  de  la  grande  Canarie  avecq 
la  ville  et  chasteaux  d’  Mecq.  La  conr 
d’Espagne  en  apprint  la  nouvelle  au 
mois  de  Juillet  avecq  advis  que  les 
notres  s’y  fortifioient  la  quelle  fit 
changer  au  conseil  d’Espagne  la  dite 
resolution  et  trouver  bon  de  conserver 
le  leur  a  empecher  la  dite  fortification 
et  chasser  nos  navires  de  la  mer  et  par 


ainsi  a  remectre  leur  premier  dessein 
pour  Tan  prochain.  Sur  quoy  il  fut 
commande  -au  dit  Adelantado  de  se 
transporter  avec  le  plus  forte  de  la 
flotte  vers  la  grande  Canarie  comme 
aussi  sur  la  fin  du  mois  d’Aougst  il  a 
cingle  vers  la  avecq  environ  cinquante 
navires  de  guerre,”  &c.— States-Gene- 
ral  to  the  Queen,  17  Oct.  1599.  (Ar¬ 
chives  of  the  Hague  MS.) 

34  Aerssens  to  Valck,  10  April,  1600. 
(MS.  before  cited.) 


596 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS. 


Chap.  XXXVII. 


many  more  places  than  was  necessary.  I  suppose  that  they 
think  him  a  monster,  and  they  are  carrying  him  about  to 
exhibit  him.  All  this  is  done/'  she  continued,  “  to  throw  dust 
in  the  eyes  of  the  poor  people,  and  to  put  it  into  their  heads 
that  the  Queen  of  England  is  suing  for  peace,  which  is  very 
wide  of  the  mark."35 

She  further  observed  that,  as  the  agents  of  the  Spanish 
Government  had  been  perpetually  sending  to  her,  she  had 
been  inclined  once  for  all  to  learn  what  they  had  to  say. 
Thus  she  should  make  manifest  to  all  the  world  that  she  was 
not  averse  to  a  treaty  such  as  might  prove  a  secure  peace  for 
herself  and  for  Christendom  ;  otherwise  not. 

It  subsequently  appeared  that  what  they  had  to  say  was 
that  if  the  queen  would  give  up  to  the  Spanish  Government 
the  cautionary  towns  which  she  held  as  a  pledge  for  her 
advances  to  the  republic,  forbid  all  traffic  and  intercourse 
between  her  subjects  and  the  Netherlander,  and  thenceforth 
never  allow  an  Englishman  to  serve  in  or  with  the  armies  of 
the  States,  a  peace  might  be  made.36 

Surely  it  needed  no  great  magnanimity  on  the  queen's  part 
to  spurn  such  insulting  proposals,  the  offer  of  which  showed 
her  capable,  in  the  opinion  of  Verreycken,  the  man  who 
made  them,  of  sinking  into  the  very  depths  of  dishonour. 
And  she  did  spurn  them.  Surely,  for  the  ally,  the  protrectress, 
the  grateful  friend  of  the  republic,  to  give  its  chief  seaports 


35  «  Bevondt  wel  dat  sy  toornig  was 
dat  sy  van  hem  niet  verstaen  hadde 
seggende  ick  en  weet  niet  wat  zy  daer 
met  hem  mogen  maken.  Ick  verstae 
door  andere  dat  men  de  clocken  ge- 
luydt  heeft  daer  liy  gepasseert  is  ende 
dat  men  hem  door  meer  plaetsen  ge- 
voert  heeft  dan  da  er  hy  passerenmoste. 
Ick  meene  seyde  H.  M.  dat  sy  meenen 
dat  het  een  monster  is  ende  dat  sy 
.  hem  willen  dragen  te  thoonen,  twelck 
al  gedaenwordt  soo  sy  seyde  omme  het 
arme  Volck  te  verblinden  ende  hen- 
lieden  wys  te  maken  dat  de  Conin- 
ginne  van  Engelhandt  henl.  tot  payse 
dede  versoncken ’t  welck  soo  sy  seyde 
verre  van  huyse  was,”  &c. — Caron  to 


States-General,  26  Jan.  1600.  (Ar¬ 
chives  of  the  Hague  MS.) 

36  “  Doch  seyde  alsoo  zy  den  voors. 
Edmonds  gelest  hadde  aldaer  opent- 
lyck  te  vertoonen,  dat  zy  niet  en 
meende  haer  Commissarien  te  senden 
tenwaere  zy  ezpresselyck  resileerden 
van  de  drie  puncten  die  Vereycken 
haer  voorgehouden  hadde.  U.  E, 
staet  endelandenraeckende,te  weeten, 
het  geven  van  de  cantionnaire  steden, 
in  henne  handen,  het  verbieden  van 
de  trafficque  ende  negotiatie  van  haere 
subjecten  met  die  van  U.  E.  ende  dat 
dezelve  niet  souden  mogen  U.  E.  in 
de  oorlogte  dienen,”  &c. — Caron  to 
States-General,  12  April,  1600.  Ibid. 


1600.  PROPOSALS  OF  SPAIN  TO  ELIZABETH.  597 

to  its  arch-enemy,  to  shut  the  narrow  seas  against  its  ships, 
so  that  they  never  more  could  sail  westward,  and  to  abandon 
its  whole  population  to  their  fate,  would  he  a  deed  of  treachery 
such  as  history,  full  of  human  baseness  as  it  is,  has  rarely 
been  obliged  to  record. 

Before  these  propositions  had  been  made  by  Yerreycken 
Elizabeth  protested  that,  should  he  offer  them,  she  would  send 
him  home  with  such  an  answer  that  people  should  talk  of  it 
for  some  time  to  come.  “  Before  I  consent  to  a  single  one  of 
those  points/'  said  the  queen,  “I  wish  myself  taken  from  this 
world.  Until  now  I  have  been  a  princess  of  my  word,  who 
would  rather  die  than  so  falsely  deceive  such  good  people  as 
the  States."37  And  she  made  those  protestations  with  such 
expression  and  attitude  that  the  Dutch  envoy  believed  her 
incapable  at  that  moment  of  dissimulation.38 

Nevertheless  her  indignation  did  not  carry  her  so  far  as  to 
induce  her  to  break  off  the  negotiations.  The  answer  of 
which  mankind  was  to  talk  in  time  to  come  was  simply  that 
she  would  not  send  her  commissioners  to  treat  for  peace 
unless  the  Spanish  Government  should  recede  from  the  three 
points  thus  offered  by  Yerreycken.39  This  certainly  was  not 
a  very  blasting  reply,  and  the  Spanish  agents  were  so  far 
from  losing  heart  in  consequence  that  the  informal  confer¬ 
ences  continued  for  a  long  time,  much  to  the  discomfort  of 
the  Netherlanders. 

For  more  than  an  hour  and  a  half  on  one  occasion  of  an 
uncommonly  hot  afternoon  in  April  did  Noel  de  Caron  argue 
with  her  Majesty  against  these  ill-boding  negotiations,  and 
ever  and  anon,  oppressed  by  the  heat  of  the  weather  and 
the  argument,  did  the  queen  wander  from  one  room  of  the 
palace  to  the  other  in  search  of  cool  air,  still  bidding 
the  envoy  follow  her  footsteps.  “We  are  travelling  about 
like  pilgrims,"  said  Elizabeth,  “but  what  is  life  but  a 
pilgrimage  ?  " 

Yet,  notwithstanding  this  long  promenade  and  these  moral 

37  Caron  to  the  States,  22  Feb.  1600.  (Archives  of  the  Hague  MS.) 

38  Ibid.  39  Same  to  same,  12  April,  1600.— MS.  before  cited. 

ft 


598 


THE  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  Chap.  XXXYII. 


reflections,  Caron  could  really  not  make  out  at  the  end  of  the 
interview  whether  or  no  she  intended  to  send  her  commis¬ 
sioners.  At  last  he  asked  her  the  question  bluntly. 

“  Hallo  !  Hallo  !”  she  replied.  “  I  have  only  spoken  to  my 
servant  once,  and  I  must  obtain  more  information  and  think 
over  the  matter  before  I  decide.  Be  assured  however  that  I 
shall  always  keep  you  informed  of  the  progress  of  the  nego¬ 
tiations,  and  do  you  inform  the  States  that  they  may  build 
upon  me  upon  a  rock.”40 

After  the  envoy  had  taken  his  leave,  the  queen  said  to 
him  in  Latin,  “  Modicce  fidei  quare  dubitasti  ? ”41  Caron  had 
however  so  nearly  got  out  of  the  door  that  he  did  not  hear 
this  admonition. 

This  the  queen  perceived,  and  calling  him  by  name  re¬ 
peated,  “  0  Caron  !  modicce  fidei  quare  dubitasti  ?  ”  adding 
the  injunction  that  he  should  remember  this  dictum ,  for  he 
well  knew  what  she  meant  by  it.42 

Thus  terminated  the  interview,  while  the  negotiations  with 
Spain,  not  for  lack  of  good-will  on  her  part,  and  despite  the 
positive  assertions  to  the  contrary  of  Buzanval  and  other 
foreign  agents,  were  destined  to  come  to  nothing. 

At  a  little  later  period,  at  the  time  of  certain  informal  and 
secret  conferences  at  Gertruydenherg,  the  queen  threatened 
the  envoy  with  her  severest  displeasure,  should  the  States 
dare  to  treat  with  Spain  without  her  permission.  “  Her 
Majesty  called  out  to  me,”  said  Caron,  “as  soon  as  I  entered 
the  room,  that  I  had  always  assured  her  that  the  States 
neither  would  nor  could  make  peace  with  the  enemy.  Yet  it 
was  now  looking  very  differently,  she  continued,  swearing 
with  a  mighty  oath  that  if  the  States  should  cheat  her  in  that 
way  she  meant  to  revenge  herself  in  such  a  fashion  that  men 
would  talk  of  it  through  all  eternity.43 


40  Caron  to  States-Gleneral,  12  April, 
1600. — MS.  before  cited.  “  Maer  zy 
antwoorde  my  terstondt  hob!,  hola, 
ick  en  liebbe  mynen  dienaer  nocb  maer 
cens  gesproken  ende  my  daerop  nocb 
anders  informeren  ende  beraden,  docb 
zyt  versekert  dat  ick  altyts  in  ’tnaerder 


progres  sal  doen  verstaen  ende  ver¬ 
sekert  oock  de  Staten  dat  zy  op  my 
mogen  gronden  als  op  een  roc  dien 
benlieden  nemmer  en  sal  failleren.” 

41  Ibid.  42  Ibid. 

43  Caron’s  Despatch,  in  Van  Deven¬ 
ter,  ii.  289. 


1G00.  UNCERTAIN  STATE  OF  AFFAIRS.  599 

The  French  Government  was  in  a  similar  state  of  alarm  in 
consequence  of  the  Gertruydenberg  conferences.44 

The  envoy  of  the  archdukes,  Marquis  d’Havre,  reported  on 
the  other  hand  that  all  attempts  to  negotiate  had  proved 
fruitless,  that  Olden- Barneyeld,  who  spoke  for  all  his  col¬ 
leagues,  was  swollen  with  pride,  and  made  it  hut  too  manifest 
that  the  States  had  no  intention  to  submit  to  any  foreign 
jurisdiction,  but  were  resolved  to  maintain  themselves  in 
the  form  of  a  republic.45 

44  Caron’s  Despatches,  in  Van  Deventer,  ii.  289.  Aerssens’  Despatch 

45  Ibid.  Havre  to  the  Archduke. 


Note. — Page  107.  107,  108  notes.  Page  386,  lines  6,  7. 

It  will  he  observed  that  the  officer  mortally  wounded  at  the  taking  of 
Cadiz,  2nd  July,  1596,  bears  in  the  text  (iii.  386)  the  same  name — 
Nicolas  Meetkerke — with  that  of  the  Colonel  killed  at  the  capture 
of  Deventer,  lOtli  June,  1591  (iii.  107).  Meteren,  B.  xvi  and  xviii, 
fol.  333,  and  888,  389,  and  other  contemporary  authorities,  state  the 
fact  without  comment-  on  the  identity  of  name.  It  is  possible,  how¬ 
ever,  that  the  Meetkerke  killed  at  Cadiz  was  one  of  the  remaining 
sons  of  the  President  of  Flanders,  and  that  his  Christian  name  was 
Baldwin  or  Adolph. 


END  OF  VOL.  III. 


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